Matty's Monday Take: Why there’s nothing boring about Brodie

Was Bathurst boring?

If you like crashes, unpredictability, and attrition.

If you like Safety Cars mixing things up.

If you like to walk away from the TV for a while .. and come back to see an order that’s chopped and changed.

If you like your motorsport more “yesteryear” than “yesterday”.

Then .. you might have thought Bathurst was boring.

And, in parts, you’d be right.

For 132 Laps, we were mostly playing a waiting game – waiting for what’s coming.

For 80 per cent of the race, for almost 5 hours .. the biggest question was: “when is someone going to hit the wall, … when is someone, or something, going to trigger a Safety Car?”

Because something is always “about to happen” at Bathurst.

But put those 132 Laps in perspective .. for almost 5 hours of the race, the cars were “in play”.

Yes, there are pit stops and driver changes and the occasional spin here, contact there – but it was green running, lap after lap after lap.

Remember that stretch in the NRL Grand Final (the one that some said was “boring”) when the ball was “in-play” for 33 of 36 minutes played? Green running.

It might not have the rat-a-tat drama we crave every minute (every play or every lap), but it sure builds the drama we know is coming.

Then on Lap 132 out of 161, Kiwi Matthew Payne hits the wall by himself at The Cutting .. out comes the Safety Car – and the game changes.

It becomes a sprint to the finish.

A game of high-speed, high-risk cat and mouse .. a roll of the dice with fuel .. a battle of wits in the pits .. a test of nerves, patience, driver skill … and a fight against fatigue.

Ultimately, there were only two in the fight.

Now the boring-brigade will say there should have been more cars challenging for the chequered flag.

Forget it – some of the best finishes at Mount Panorama have been head to head, car to car .. 1 versus 2. Catch me if you can, or stop me if you can.

Yesterday it was Brodie Kostecki versus Broc Feeney. Erebus versus Red Bull.

Brodie – with his co-driver Todd Hazelwood – had led all the way from Pole Position. That’s a story in itself.

Their super-power was pure and simple – speed.

When the strategy guessing game gets taken off the table - like it did yesterday – speed is the ultimate tool left in the kit bag.

You can trip over strategy but it’s much harder to get speed wrong.

And Kostecki had plenty of speed.

He also did not make a mistake. Not in his first stint .. not in that long stretch before the Safety Car .. and not when the blowtorch was being put on him for the last 20-plus laps.

The only thing that bothered Brodie along the way was the cooling air hose that came loose at one stage from his helmet. He brushed it away and kept going.

His story is fascinating.

He wins the Championship last year with Erebus .. has a massive blue with the team in the off season .. sits out the first 6 races of the season .. and is next to no chance of driving for the team again this season.

They somehow sort it out – and it times it was reportedly not pretty .. and Brodie returns to drive the #1 car knowing full well he cannot defend his Championship.

Last month, it’s announced he’ll leave the team at the end of the year – and drive for Dick Johnson Racing next season.

So, in a team that he’s won a title with, gone to war with, and will leave by season’s end, this 26-year-old from Perth they call “Bush” takes out the biggest prize the sport has to offer - The Peter Brock Trophy.

It’s quite a yarn.

Yes, the Bathurst 1000 of 2024 may have been boring at times, but I’ll tell you one thing – there’s nothing boring about Brodie.