Bathurst 1000 2026: Kostecki's stunning win, Bates' Shootout pole and the talking points from Mount Panorama

Kostecki seals an all-time Great Race finish

Brodie Kostecki produced one of the more remarkable victories in Bathurst 1000 history, refusing to accept defeat after a bungled brake change appeared to cost him victory and clawing his way back to the front with a series of searing laps, as V8 Sleuth recounted in its review of the race. When he reached the back of Will Brown and later Zach Bates, V8 Sleuth observed it felt only a matter of time before he hit the lead. ¹

The decisive moment came on Lap 161, when Kostecki swept past an out-of-fuel Anton De Pasquale in a grandstand finish that, per V8 Sleuth, got the nation talking. The 2026 Repco Bathurst 1000 also produced the fastest lap around Mount Panorama in the Gen3 era and the fastest ever Great Race, according to V8 Sleuth's takeaways piece. ¹

Kostecki's triumph came despite adversity within his own camp: trusted ally George Commins was a late withdrawal due to injury, and a brake change went wrong mid-race. V8 Sleuth argued the performance vindicated Dick Johnson Racing's decision to lure Kostecki across for 2025, including clearing its ranks to accommodate Commins and Tom Moore. Todd Hazelwood and Kostecki have now won two of the past three Bathurst 1000s. ¹

Parity heat and a definitive verdict

Supercars copped plenty of heat, rightly so in V8 Sleuth's view, for letting the parity debate creep all the way into day one of track action at Mount Panorama. But the publication also credited the category once the verdict arrived on outcomes from barometric pressure testing: a change was made and no wiggle room was left for further debate, addressing a concern following The Bend about the scope for practice sandbagging in search of a mid-event leg-up. ¹

Even while the Camaro maintained a straight-line speed advantage, teams got on with the job, V8 Sleuth noted. When six Chevrolets made the Top Ten Shootout, there was a chance to cry parity in a way that could have detracted from Zach Bates' time in the sun, but Jamie Whincup and co took the high road. For the second year running, a Ford got the job done in spite of its speed trap shortcomings. ¹

Cam Waters acknowledged the straight-line contrast but rejected any parity excuse after a tough weekend for Tickford, telling Speedcafe that although the Camaro looked like it was doing it easier, a Ford won the race and there were other competitive Fords, so the team was not hiding behind that. Waters said Thursday pace had simply failed to translate and the team was still trying to dissect why. ⁴

Bates announces himself, Tickford flops

Zach Bates emerged as the breakout story of the weekend. V8 Sleuth argued that as if his qualifying display was not enough, his Top Ten Shootout performance should put him on the map for years to come, adding bluntly: this kid has got it. Bates took Shootout pole despite the six-Chevrolet presence in the session. ¹

Tickford, by contrast, was oddly anonymous at Mount Panorama, with neither Mustang looking like a contender at any point, Speedcafe reported. Both cars missed the Top Ten Shootout, while Thomas Randle and Rueben Goodall led the squad's race effort with ninth, six positions ahead of the high-profile Waters and Mark Winterbottom pairing. ⁴

Waters told Speedcafe it was a weird weekend with no pace really at all, saying the car felt okay on Thursday but did not fire off afterwards despite the team trying different things across the two cars. He suggested the outing was hopefully a little bit of an outlier given the Camaro has traditionally been the car to beat there, and noted the Mustang aero package is expected to be an advantage at the Finals venues, especially Gold Coast and Adelaide. ⁴

Waters will kick off his title bid as the sole Tickford driver to have made the Finals, Speedcafe reported. He expects the same intensity as last year, when he was infamously knocked out of title contention by a clash with fellow Ford driver Matt Payne during the Sandown semi-final, but believes everyone will do a better job this time because the field has already been through a Finals series once. ⁴

Davison's quiet excellence and a wheel cut off

In his first year since retiring as a Supercars full-timer, Will Davison paired with championship leader Matt Payne at Grove Racing and made a bigger impression than results alone suggest. V8 Sleuth, citing data shared by Jack Perkins from The B Pillar, reported that Davison rated best of all co-drivers – and faster than 11 full-timers – based on the average of their fastest 40 laps. Payne and Davison finished fifth in the Great Race despite two penalties, and wound up runners-up in the Ryco Enduro Cup to Triple Eight's Will Brown and Scott Pye. ³

Perkins told V8 Sleuth that Davison's pace placed him 14th overall amongst the main drivers, one spot ahead of Jack Le Brocq, who finished fourth in the race, arguing that without their penalties the Grove pair were a pretty good chance of being on the podium. ³

At the other end of the classification sheet, Walkinshaw TWG Racing took extraordinary measures after Ryan Wood crashed at Reid Park. Outgoing team principal Carl Faux told V8 Sleuth the team had never seen a wheel need to be cut off before, but getting Wood classified was the best way to make sure he secured his Finals place, given a DNF left him, however marginally, at risk. Wood and co-driver Jaxon Evans were classified last of the 24 finishers, taking some points, unlike the Mobil 1 Optus entry of Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard, which failed to finish. ²

Faux, whose last day with the Clayton team was the day V8 Sleuth published its report, backed the team to rebound at the Gold Coast, noting it had come from a shocking Bathurst last year yet again put two cars into the Finals, this time with a new manufacturer, and saying there was lots to be proud of. ²

New commentary era rises, Race Control praised

The new era of Supercars television commentary rose to the occasion at the biggest race of the year, according to V8 Sleuth, with Richard Craill and Garth Tander very good in their first Great Race in the box and superbly complemented by Greg Murphy. Their call of Bates' Shootout pole lap and of the Lap 161 drama as Kostecki swept past De Pasquale, V8 Sleuth wrote, will not be forgotten anytime soon. Speedcafe echoed the assessment, saying that when it mattered most in the incredible finish, the new sound of Supercars delivered, with Craill now forever part of Great Race history after his epic call of the final lap. ¹⁶

Speedcafe noted the commentary change that removed Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife was controversial and the season began with a rotating cast of lead callers, but argued it has at least landed in a healthy spot. It reported that a planned rotation of commentators through the box during the Great Race, inspired by test cricket, was abandoned after both Crompton and Skaife declined offers to be involved, and that there is already talk such a rotation could occur next year. Skaife, for his part, was part of an SEN call of the last lap led by Matthew Cocks, in which the callers declared 'LAZARUS HAS RISEN!' as Kostecki won, as captured in a post from SEN 1170 highlighted by V8 Sleuth. ¹⁶

Race Control also earned a shoutout from V8 Sleuth for handling the late curveball presented by Chaz Mostert's crashed Supra, which the publication said could not be left where it sat while drivers raced at full tilt with such high stakes. The Safety Car was called on Lap 157 and was returning to the pitlane by the end of Lap 158, allowing a three-lap sprint to the end, which V8 Sleuth described as the right call executed to perfection. It added that whether a Safety Car should have been called earlier, when Macauley Jones needed an Austin Powers-style 71-point turn at the Cutting, is perhaps more up for debate. ¹

One ongoing concern carried out of the race: brakes. V8 Sleuth backed Brenton Grove's mid-race serve regarding Supercars' ongoing brake woes, noting three rounds in a row have brought serious concerns on this front and that for it to spill into the Bathurst 1000 is not good enough, with rectification needed as the season moves into finals and championship mode. ¹

Beyond the 1000: 12 Hour plans and ADF flypast

Looking ahead to the Mountain's other great race, Scott Taylor Motorsport is the first confirmed entry for the 2027 Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour, with Cam Waters, Chaz Mostert and Thomas Randle to share a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in a program led by Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan, V8 Sleuth reported. Waters put the #222 on pole for this year's edition before a crash for Randle ended their race, and team owner Scott Taylor said the same combination is returning because the team has the capability to win and should have won last year. Mostert spoke of unfinished business and Randle of being keen to right a few wrongs. The 2027 Bathurst 12 Hour will be held across February 11-14. ⁵

The Australian Defence Force also confirmed its role at this year's event in an official Defence record, stating that ADF aircraft and equipment were on display at Mount Panorama from October 8 to 11 as the ADF supported the 2026 Bathurst 1000. The flying displays featured two Air Force balloons and a Central Flying School Roulettes PC-21, while on the ground Army project vehicles Project Armygeddon, Project Digger and Project Matilda took part in on-track entertainment, supported by a Bushmaster and a G-Wagon maintenance variant. ADF Careers staff engaged spectators on career pathways across aviation, engineering, logistics and trades. ⁷