It may have come as a surprise to many, but Brodie Kostecki’s success has been a long time coming and proved an emotional one for Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan by winning the Larry Perkins Trophy.
Kostecki took two victories at the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint supporting the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.
Teammate Will Brown played the ultimate role behind Kostecki to defend him from the chasing pack enabling the duo to score a 1-2 in the Coca-Cola Racing Chevrolet Camaros.
“Will did an absolutely unreal job on the hards there at the start, holding a few guys up there,” said Kostecki.
“It was great to race with the Red Bulls and to come out on top, it was absolutely surreal.
“I got shuffled out a little bit on the start there – I was trying to protect Will there on the hards, but Shane got by – and, on the restart, I was able to race Shane and Will again and was able to capitalise on what Will did.”
Another victory followed ensuring Kostecki won the Larry Perkins Trophy, named after the mentor of CEO Ryan. Spending his formative years at Perkins Engineering, Ryan has risen Erebus Motorsport into a Bathurst winning operation since joining the squad in 2015 when it was running the Mercedes.
“It’s really good,” Ryan said post-race. “A proud moment for me personally because I worked for Larry for seven years and I know him really well.
“He’s a top person and a big part of why I am who I am as a racer. He taught me a lot about racing.
“It’s bloody good!
“To have Jack [Perkins, Larry’s son] as a co-driver this year too, they were both pretty stoked – Larry and Jack – after the race.
“They wanted us to win it and I’m glad that we could do it.”
A podium in the final race came as a surprise due to Kostecki qualifying 14th and sealed the Larry Perkins Trophy win.
“I was definitely really excited after the wins yesterday but this meant a lot more to me, and it really meant a lot to our team as well with Barry and his history with Larry,” Kostecki explained post-race.
“When I got told I was a chance for the podium, I was a bit sort of astounded with that and stoked.
“It’s great to be able to repay the whole team after the off-season that they had when they were really busy over New Year’s and Christmas [building Gen3 cars], so it’s great to give back to them in terms of trophies.”
The next round of the Repco Supercars Championship is the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint on April 28-30.