Kostecki and Hazelwood win 2026 Bathurst 1000 as De Pasquale runs dry on final lap

Last-lap heartbreak hands Dick Johnson Racing victory

Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood have won the 2026 Repco Bathurst 1000 in the most dramatic fashion, sweeping past Anton De Pasquale's Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro as it ran out of fuel coming down Mountain Straight on the final lap of the 161-lap race at Mount Panorama. Kostecki took the chequered flag unchallenged in the #17 Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang GT, finishing one second clear of Will Brown, as Speedcafe reported from the circuit. ¹

TouringCarTimes detailed the same finish, reporting that De Pasquale had been instructed to save fuel during the closing stages before his Chevrolet began to splutter on Mountain Straight, leaving De Pasquale and co-driver Lee Holdsworth stranded without the win that had appeared firmly in their grasp. Brown and Pye inherited second for Triple Eight Race Engineering, with pole-sitter Zach Bates and Aaron Seton completing the podium for Matt Stone Racing. ²

For Dick Johnson Racing, the result marked the team's first Bathurst victory since 2019, according to TouringCarTimes, while Dive Bomb's race report counted it as the fifth Bathurst 1000 win for Dick Johnson Racing. It was Kostecki's second Bathurst 1000 win following his 2024 triumph with Erebus Motorsport — a pairing with Hazelwood, as Speedcafe noted. Speedcafe quoted Kostecki after the race: "We executed so well up until that second last pit stop with that brake change... Like I've always said, the mountain always chooses the winner. We definitely had the fastest car today so super proud of everyone at the team. This Ford Mustang was on rails. I can't believe we won Bathurst in the #17!" ¹²³

Fox Sports captured the emotional reactions, quoting Kostecki: "I'm just in awe", and Holdsworth's heartbreak in the devastated Team 18 garage: "I can't believe it... I didn't know we were so close on fuel. I've got no words mate." ⁴

The race in the balance: pit stop pain and fuel strategy

Speedcafe's race report described a relatively uneventful contest dominated for much of the distance by the #17 Mustang, until a slow brake change at Kostecki and Hazelwood's penultimate pit stop dropped them to fourth. TouringCarTimes placed that stop on lap 125, reporting that the crew changed brake discs and pads but struggled to fit a new right-front, costing 27 seconds and dropping the #17 from first to fifth. Speedcafe, in its lap-by-lap account, recorded Kostecki pitting from the lead on lap 124 with a 20-second advantage and losing the lead in one stop. ¹²

After that setback, the fight for the lead became a strategic duel between Bates and De Pasquale. TouringCarTimes reported that De Pasquale pitted on lap 139 with Bates responding a lap later, the Team 18 Chevrolet emerging with a substantial advantage — a 15.5-second lead with 21 laps remaining. Speedcafe attributed the difference to fuel: Team 18 spent 50 seconds in the lane while Matt Stone Racing was stationary 15 seconds longer, and Speedcafe also noted Team 18's shorter stop helped De Pasquale bring an eight-second deficit to Bates down to less than a second. ²¹

Kostecki stretched his final stint to lap 150, leaving just 11 laps to recover the lost ground, per TouringCarTimes, which reported he set consecutive Gen3 lap records on laps 152 and 153 while closing on Brown. Speedcafe timed the critical pass differently, reporting Kostecki fought past Brown on lap 155, and Dive Bomb's live account placed the move on lap 158, noting Motorsport Australia Race Control issued Brown a bad sportsmanship flag for defending heavily. ²¹³

Fox Sports reported that the command to conserve fuel came to De Pasquale with 10 laps to go, followed by a more urgent alert a lap later, and quoted Greg Murphy questioning Team 18's strategy given the lead the car had in hand. Brown pitted from the lead on lap 142 and Kostecki's Mustang made its final stop on lap 149, according to Speedcafe, leaving the #17 roughly 20 seconds in arrears before the charge began. ⁴¹

Safety Car drama and the three-lap dash

The race's first and only Safety Car proved decisive. Speedcafe reported that Chaz Mostert crashed his Walkinshaw TWG Racing Toyota Supra heavily at Forrest's Elbow, ending the longest green-flag run in Bathurst 1000 history — a distinction Speedcafe noted the race had been approaching all day — and setting up a three-lap dash to the chequered flag. TouringCarTimes placed the crash with just six laps remaining, while Speedcafe's lap report put the yellow with five laps to go; both accounts agree it was the first Safety Car period of the race. ¹²

At the restart, Speedcafe reported Kostecki made quick work of Bates at Murray's Corner, casting the Matt Stone Racing Camaro wide and opening the door for Brown to follow through, leaving De Pasquale leading with a two-and-a-half-second advantage that ultimately proved meaningless. TouringCarTimes reported De Pasquale's Chevrolet began to splutter on Mountain Straight on the final lap, allowing Kostecki to sweep past for an extraordinary victory. ¹²

Speedcafe also reported that stewards investigated the opening-lap incident in which James Moffat's Garry Rogers Motorsport car was sandwiched between Tony D'Alberto's Dick Johnson Racing entry and Nash Morris's PremiAir Racing car — with Moffat's right-front wheel interlocking with Morris's left-rear and forcing a pit stop for a puncture and reported steering damage — but no penalties were delivered. Dive Bomb likewise reported stewards took no further action over the lap-one contact. ¹³

Opening laps, penalties and a landmark green-flag run

Aaron Seton started the race from pole position earned by co-driver Zach Bates, holding off Todd Hazelwood into Hell Corner, per Speedcafe. Speedcafe also reported early drama when the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mustang of Jackson Walls and Jack Perkins pitted on the warm-up lap with a power steering issue that ultimately cost the pair several laps, while the race's first controversy came when Matt Payne copped a five-second penalty for contact that forced David Reynolds off the road at Conrod Straight, as Speedcafe reported. Fox Sports similarly covered Payne's penalty, before reporting the Grove Racing driver later received a drive-through penalty — which Speedcafe dated to lap 76 — after a pit stop infringement in which a wheel rolled away and a crew member entered the lane without a fire suit to retrieve it. ¹⁴

For the grid, Dive Bomb reported Bates qualified on pole in the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout with a 2:04.206 lap, with Kostecki alongside in the #17 Dick Johnson Racing Shell V-Power Mustang and Anton De Pasquale and Cooper Murray on row two. Dive Bomb also reported Supercars approved a temporary change to the Engine Specification Document after alleged power losses of around 9 kW for Ford engines in pre-event barometric testing at Mount Panorama's altitude, to be reversed before the Gold Coast 500, with Toyota Supra and Chevrolet Camaro specifications unchanged. ³

Elsewhere in the mid-field, Speedcafe reported Macauley Jones spun his Brad Jones Racing Toyota Supra at The Cutting on lap 46 and backed it into the concrete wall, while Rylan Gray's car suffered a left-rear suspension failure with Tony D'Alberto bringing it back to pit lane. Ryan Wood slammed the wall at Reid Park, per Speedcafe and TouringCarTimes, with Fox Sports noting the Walkinshaw TWG Racing driver had needed only to finish the Bathurst 1000 to seal his Supercars finals ticket, but was forced to park in the garage. ¹²⁴

Full result and what comes next

Speedcafe published the finishing order for Race 30: Kostecki/Hazelwood (Dick Johnson Racing, Ford Mustang GT) won from Brown/Pye (Triple Eight Race Engineering, Ford Mustang GT) by 1.1844s, with Bates/Seton third (Matt Stone Racing, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1) at 1.9265s, Le Brocq/Harri Jones fourth, Payne/Will Davison fifth for Grove Racing, Murray/Lochie Dalton sixth, Heimgartner/Bryce Fullwood seventh, Golding/Richie Stanaway eighth, Randle/Reuben Goodall ninth and Bayley Hall/Craig Lowndes rounding out the top ten in the Team 18 wildcard entry. De Pasquale/Holdsworth were classified 26th, completing 160 laps, with Mostert/Coulthard 25th after stopping on lap 155. ¹

TouringCarTimes reported Brown and Pye's second place secured the Ryco Sprint Cup, while noting Bates and Seton celebrated their first Bathurst podium after a breakthrough weekend, and Le Brocq and Harri Jones finished fourth to complete a strong result for Matt Stone Racing. The championship now heads to the Gold Coast 500 on October 23-25 for the opening round of the 2026 Finals Series, as TouringCarTimes reported, and Race 30 was scheduled over 161 laps from 11:30am Sunday according to Fox Sports' event schedule. ²⁴