Coca-Cola Camaro’s Brodie Kostecki has regained the Repco Supercars Championship points lead after winning a dramatic and action-packed opening race of the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight.

The West Australian claimed his 3rd career race win and first since the Australian Grand Prix event earlier this year. It’s his first ever win in Sydney.

Kostecki now holds a slender 14-point lead over his Erebus’ teammate Will Brown, who finished third behind Kostecki and Ford Mustang driver Chaz Mostert, after Shane van Gisbergen received a penalty for a last lap run-in with Brown.

It was an action-packed race from start to finish.

Pole position winner Andre Heimgartner had a horrible start, blaming a steering issue over the team radio. he eventually finished back in 14th position.

Mid-way through the race David Reynolds in the Penrite Mustang ended up in the middle of a grass field after coming off at Turn 10, triggering a Safety Car.

From that Cam Waters pitted in the Monster Mustang trying to gain a key advantage, but was penalised by race control for impeding Red Bull’s Broc Feeney.

Despite his five second penalty, Waters pushed on and late on was involved in a four-way tussle with Mostert, Brown and van Gisbergen.

None of the drivers gave quarter to the other as they battled door-to-door over the closing laps.

When it was said and done, Mostert emerged in second place, while Brown and van Gisbergen battled for third.

On the final lap van Gisbergen and Brown collided on several occasions, including a run-in from behind by van Gisbergen to Brown’s rear.

Van Gisbergen finished the race in third and drove to the podium area before the penalty was announced by race control, the five second sting meaning the defending Supercars Champion dropped back to a 7th placed finish.

Brown took his place on the third step of the podium and celebrated alongside Kostecki and Mostert while fireworks took to the Sydney skies.

It was Erebus’ 7th win of 2023 and extended their points lead over Triple Eight in the team’s championship race.

“That’s unreal, I can’t believe how fast the car was,” Kostecki said.

“There’s still a few things to work on, but unreal night. The thing was just a rocket ship.” Kostecki leads Brown by 14 points, while Red Bull’s Broc Feeney remains third, 97 points off the lead, while van Gisbergen is still 4th, 114 points behind Kostecki.

Teams will regroup overnight an be back in action on Sunday at Sydney Motorsport Park with qualifying for Sunday’s race to begin at 12:35pm.

The final race of the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight begins at 3:30pm local time on Sunday afternoon.