Benalla local Zak Best and co-driver Aaron Cameron finished 13th at the Bathurst 1000 on Sunday afternoon. Photos: AAP Image/Mark Evans
Photo by
MARK EVANS
Benalla local Zak Best has endured a tough weekend at the crown jewel of the Supercars championship, the Bathurst 1000, though a late-race safety car helped him and co-driver Aaron Cameron to a 13th-placed finish at ‘The Great Race’.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Returning to Mount Panorama after a brilliant 2025 edition, during which they ran second with Best putting in a brilliant rain-affected stint before ultimately holding on to finish ninth, the Blanchard Racing Team pair was confident of another strong result at the weekend.
Things initially looked positive for the #3 LIQUI MOLY BLAHST RACING entry, with Best putting together the sixth-fastest time in the co-driver practice two session on Thursday, his time of 2:06.254 within four-tenths of a second of Lochie Dalton, who topped the time sheets.
Practice three on Friday morning reaffirmed the promise, with the pair good enough for seventh in the session, dropping the lap time to a 2:05.198 as they refamiliarized themselves with the mountain, while Cameron was again around the mark in the afternoon’s fourth practice, putting in the sixth-fastest time in the final session before qualifying.
But by the qualifying session in the afternoon, Cameron could muster just the 18th fastest time, meaning the pair missed the top 10 shootout on Saturday, and would line up for the main race on Sunday towards the back of the 24-car grid.
Sunday’s race brought with it memories of the brilliant charge the pair made 12 months ago, though, and given it was starting in the exact same grid slot as last year, there was enough optimism that another such run could be made.
Starting in the car, Best – who celebrated his 25th birthday on the day of the race – immediately made ground on lap one, moving up to 17th and, after Cameron had swapped into the car for his first stint, the pair found itself running fifth at one stage, though was out of sync with the rest of the field’s pit stops.
By the time Best was back in the seat for his second stint, though, the duo was back in 18th as the strategies began to level out, with Cameron finding himself yo-yoing between 18th and 10th as the final pit stops played out.
After an unprecedented 156 of 161 laps had passed, though, the first safety car of the race was called – the latest in the history of the Bathurst 1000 it has appeared for the first time – and having found themselves back in their starting position of 18th by the time that occurred, and with Chaz Mostert hitting the wall and retiring from the race to bring out the safety car, the BRT duo gained a position to move into 17th.
Best and Cameron moved up five places in the final five laps to ultimately finish 13th after a tough weekend.
Photo by
MARK EVANS
The number six car of Cam Waters would pit under the safety car, too, gifting the BRT pair another position to move into 16th as the race restarted with a final three-lap sprint to the finish.
Cameron, who was in the car to finish, then overtook the #14 car of Cameron Hill heading into the final lap, before passing the #9 car of Jobe Stewart as well as the #18 of Anton De Pasquale – who had run out of fuel – to ultimately finish 13th in a whirlwind finale.
“It was a tough weekend,” Best said in a short video recapping the weekend posted to BRT social media channels on Sunday evening.
“But P13 in the end is pretty good considering where we started, and there was only the one safety car, so pretty happy with that.”
The one safety car wreaked havoc on the race, though, with car #17, the Shell V-Power Racing Team entry of Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood, taking full advantage to win on the final lap.
Having just passed the Red Bull Ampol car of Will Brown for third before the safety car was called, Kostecki was 13 seconds off the lead, and a further nine behind second-placed Zach Bates, before the pack was bunched up again for the restart.
With three laps to go when racing resumed, Kostecki passed Bates for second heading into the penultimate lap after a mistake from the rookie saw him go wide at the final corner.
Meanwhile, De Pasquale was 2.4 seconds up the road and looking good for the win, but was managing dangerously low fuel, which he ultimately ran out of at the start of the final lap, handing Kostecki and Hazelwood the most dramatic of victories.
