Kostecki and Hazelwood Win the 2026 Bathurst 1000 After Leaders Run Out of Fuel
Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood won the 2026 Repco Bathurst 1000 on Sunday 11 October, driving the No. 17 Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang. The race was decided on the final lap, when the Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro of Anton De Pasquale and Lee Holdsworth ran out of fuel while leading on the climb up Mountain Straight. Will Brown and Scott Pye finished second for Triple Eight, 1.18 seconds behind, with polesitter Zach Bates and Aaron Seton third for Matt Stone Racing.
A race of late twists
According to Ford Australia, Kostecki led by 20 seconds with 37 laps to go. During a late front brake change at his second-last stop, the new rotor would not fit onto the hub, and the delay of about 30 seconds dropped the car to fifth. The race then ran without a safety car until lap 156, when Chaz Mostert crashed his Walkinshaw TWG Racing Toyota Supra at Forrest’s Elbow with five laps left. The restart and fresher tyres helped Kostecki move back up the order.
Team 18 had short-fuelled De Pasquale at his final stop to gain track position. The gamble put the Camaro in the lead, but it ran dry on the last lap and was classified with 160 of the 161 laps.
The winning race time of 5:54:04.749 made it the fastest Bathurst 1000 on record, according to Ford. It was Dick Johnson Racing’s fifth Bathurst win as a team and its first since 2019. Kostecki and Hazelwood had also won the race together in 2024, then driving for Erebus.
Kostecki raced with team manager Tom Moore as his engineer, after his regular race engineer George Commins was injured in a mountain bike accident before the event. “The Mountain always chooses the winner,” Kostecki said.
Championship picture
Matt Payne finished fifth and kept the lead of the Supercars Championship. Jack Le Brocq’s fourth place secured the final spot in the Supercars Finals series, which moved to the Gold Coast on 23–25 October.
What it shows about motorsport markets
Bathurst attracts interest, and bets, from well beyond the regular Supercars following. The 2026 race is a clear example of why endurance racing is hard to call. The car that dominated for most of the day lost the lead to a stuck brake component; the car that led on the final lap did not finish it; and a single late safety car reshaped the finishing order.
Outright markets on a 161-lap race price in none of those events individually. Live markets during a race can move sharply after a pit stop or a crash, and the temptation to chase a position in-running is strong. Any decision made in those moments is a reaction, not an informed view. If you follow motorsport markets, set a fixed amount for the weekend before the green flag. Our guides on setting limits and sports betting versus casino games explain how margins and limits work.
Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood won on 11 October 2026 in the No. 17 Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang.
Team 18 had short-fuelled their Camaro at its final stop to gain track position, and the car ran out of fuel on Mountain Straight on the final lap.
Will Brown and Scott Pye (Triple Eight Ford) were second, 1.18 seconds behind, and Zach Bates and Aaron Seton (Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet) were third.
Sources
- Autosport: Kostecki and Hazelwood win after De Pasquale and Holdsworth run out of fuel (11 October 2026)
- Ford Australia, From The Road: DJR Car 17 Bathurst 1000 win (14 October 2026)
- RACER: Kostecki and Hazelwood triumph after dramatic Bathurst 1000 finish (11 October 2026)
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Header photo: Bathurst 1000 2005 6 by Benchill, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.