Supercars Eseries favourites Brodie Kostecki and Jarrad Filsell have managed to collect a decent amount of points at Michigan last night, despite being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Brodie continues to lead the All Stars Championship, while Jarrad is just 35-points off the Pro Series lead in 2nd.
Pro Series Sprint Race
With 3-tenths covering the 19-car field in qualifying, Jarrad was further down the time sheets than we were used to seeing and P14 at the start.
They all went full throttle as soon as the green flag went out, Jarrad trying hard to jump into a hole and tuck in behind the pack.
The #94 racer was moving quickly and positioned his car perfectly, making it into the top five before the halfway point of the 14-lap dash.
With three laps remaining, Jarrad had solidified his spot inside the lead pack. He moved down to the bottom as they went to the last lap and snuck through at the final moment to seal a spectacular win.
A post-race penalty for Jarrad though, meant he would be demoted to 11th after the checkered flag, for net-code on the penultimate lap.
All Stars Sprint Race
Brodie Kostecki also had some work to do in the races, getting underway for his rolling start from 16th.
With real world speedway experience, Brodie tried his best to steer clear of the chaos that unfolded in front of him. He got up to 13th before Zak Best collided with the #99 Holden on lap 2.Now with damage to his Holden, Brodie circulated for the remainder of the race and limped his car to 7th by the final lap.
Combined Feature Race
For the first in Supercars history, both the All Stars and Pros raced together and with the grid set from the sprint races, the Pro Series started on the inside line, while All Stars were on the outside.
Brodie got away from 14th, while Jarrad was behind him in P21 after the penalty.
There was plenty of movement in the early laps, but it was Jarrad who paid the price and was taken out and upside down on lap 3.
With Brodie now running solo near the front, he moved into the top ten by lap 6 and into the lead pack.
There was a busy pit lane on lap 14 as most of the field dived in for their compulsory pit stop, before the competition caution was called.
Brodie was the first off pit road and there was a big gap to the pack behind him, before the Safety Car was deployed on lap 21.
As racing went green one last time, Brodie was 5th with 10 laps to go while Jarrad still had some work to do from 34th after copping massive damage.
Jarrad came from deep within the field to move up to P11 of the Pro’s before the finish line, while Brodie moved into the lead with one lap remaining.
It seemed far from over though as he was right-reared by car #6 on the second last corner of the last lap. It sent Brodie into the fence before he managed to gather it up and cross the line 5th of the All Stars.
Jarrad Filsell said: “I just didn’t really get a good enough lap in qualifying behind someone in the tow, the gap between the cars was too large and I just didn’t really get enough peak speed at the end of the straights. People were playing funny buggers and sandbagging and not really giving each other tow but luckily qualifying didn’t really matter here too much. I got a penalty after the win in the sprint race which put me back in 19th. I protested it but they didn’t adjust the grid so I was just in the absolute cluster at the back of the field and then was involved in that first shunt which was big. I think the combined field just added fuel to the fire in terms of crashes because there’s a lot of people who don’t have much experience on the sim or driving around ovals. I’m not sure the impact that tonight will have on my championship, there weren’t too many points on offer tonight compared to other rounds so hopefully we’re still in the lead of the championship or at least very close to it.”
Brodie Kostecki added: “Qualifying is all about drafting and working with a partner to get a good lap but no one wanted to tow me around the track, but I wasn’t really too bothered where I started as it doesn’t really matter around tracks like Michigan. I was still feeling pretty confident heading into the first race, I’d just got done spotting for Jarrad but he had a couple of penalties that were still up in the air so he couldn’t come spot my race so there was a crash that happened out of my view so I got tangled up in that and couldn’t do anything to avoid it so that was pretty much my race over. In the combined race, I was able to avoid most of the chaos at the start and work my way up to be racing for the lead before getting turned around right at the end but it was a pretty exciting race. I didn’t mind the size of the grid, it was quite a big field size but I feel like the racing was pretty good. With three rounds remaining, I don’t think tonight is going to have a huge impact on my championship and hopefully I’ll be able to come back strong for the final rounds.
The Eseries returns to its usual format next Wednesday as the team gets set to go racing at Phillip Island.