Even once Kostecki had beaten Broc Feeney and co-driver Jamie Whincup to the chequered flag (their Red Bull teammates Will Brown and Scott Pye placed third), and brought his vehicle to a stop, the Western Australian remained in the car.

He stuck gloved fingers through the visor of his helmet to mop up tears, and continued to sit there even when Feeney came to congratulate him. Eventually, he was yanked out by co-driver Hazelwood, who had just spent the preceding 30 seconds telling the Channel Seven broadcast that “I think I’m hallucinating” and “when you win Bathurst it makes up for everything”.

Hazelwood could have been referring to the fact he himself had just won his maiden Supercars championship race, at the Bathurst 1000, in his 195th start. (“I hate that stat,” he said later. “That was certainly burning in the back of my mind.”)

The 29-year-old South Australian could have been talking about his family, who remortgaged their house and cooked countless fundraising sausage sizzles to help him get his start. (“To win The Great Race is a nice return.”)

But he could equally have been citing the trials and tribulations of his primary driver, who, five years after succumbing to a carbon dioxide poisoning scare at his Bathurst 1000 debut as a 21-year-old, had just become only the fifth this century to win it from pole position.

“It’s redemption from last year for sure,” Kostecki said, recalling that second-place finish from pole. “I’m just in awe. Broc was breathing down my neck the whole time, and there were 32 or 31 shootout laps that were balls to the walls the whole time.

“It’s kind of funny around here. If you bring your pace back a little bit, you can actually get yourself into trouble. I just knew that if I did shootout laps every single lap I wouldn’t make a mistake.”

Kostecki skirted around questions about the politics and drama regarding Erebus, save for saying he never doubted his ability and confirming that time does heal all wounds. “Yeah, I think so,” he said. “It’s one of those things, and we just won Bathurst, so I just can’t thank the crew enough, and we’ll celebrate tonight.”

It was wild that, in a race of near-unprecedented intensity, safety-car intervention was not required until lap 132, when Matt Payne could not downshift and ran into the concrete wall at The Cutting just as the field drove into the pits before the last stop of the day.

Until then, betting enthusiasts who took a chance on the no safety cars option paying $101 would have been feeling incredibly lucky. Since the safety car was introduced at the Bathurst 1000 in 1987, only twice – in 1989 and 1991 – has one not been required.

This unusually clean day, with its steady top two slightly separated from the rest for almost five hours, had everyone at their absolute limit. It featured, as Whincup said afterwards, “no brain fades or silly mistakes”.

Kostecki spent the opening 28 laps holding off several menacing passing attempts from Feeney, before opening up a 19-second lead. Even as Feeney and Whincup slowly but surely chipped away at that deficit, the advantage appeared relatively clear.

That was until the safety car procedure set up a sprint finish from the restart with 27 laps to go, and the contest became one of micro-margins.

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Kostecki and Feeney traded fastest laps of the day (Feeney ultimately won this battle with a 2:07.861 on lap 42), as rubber burned under the frenzied beating and teams got more fresh tyres ready just in case.

A 0.7-second deficit crept out to 1.2 seconds with nine laps to go, and then 1.5 seconds with four remaining, before Kostecki finally crossed the finish line with 1.35 seconds up his sleeve.

It is the best Bathurst finish for Feeney from five attempts, but Whincup’s attempt to break his 12-year-long Bathurst drought fell just short.

“I drove my heart out, I didn’t leave anything on the table,” Feeney said. “These guys next to me, Brodie and Todd, absolutely killed it today. They were faultless. We’ll be back one day. We’ll get up on the top step.”

The podium finish helped Feeney knock off Chaz Mostert for second in the standings, behind Brown by 204 points with two races remaining. Mostert finished fifth, while fourth-placed Cam Waters was fourth fastest.

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