Former Supercars team boss Jeff Grech has weighed in on the ugly saga at Erebus Motorsport, slamming the team’s “disgusting” and “disrespectful’ act towards their reigning champion driver Brodie Kostecki.
Kostecki is seeking an exit from the team – mere months after claiming his first Supercars title – and will not race in the season opener later this month as negotiations over a permanent split continue.
But this week at Winton Raceway, Kostecki’s replacement Todd Hazelwood drove the brand-new Erebus Camaro in a shakedown and official pre-season test – with the car adorned with the No.1 that is typically reserved for the reigning champion.
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It’s a move that Grech, a legendary former team boss of Holden Racing Team for two decades (HRT, now Walkinshaw Andretti United) and subsequently Team 18, labelled “disgusting”.
“The bloke that won the championship is the No.1 bloke,” he told Wide World of Sports.
“It’s totally disrespectful (to Kostecki).”
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Supercars rules are expected to force Erebus to change the number for the opening round of the season at the Bathurst 500, with Hazelwood likely to bear Erebus’ traditional No.99 – the same number that Kostecki bore as he claimed last year’s title.
Grech, who was at the helm of HRT for six driver’s championships and four Bathurst 1000 wins, said he had never witnessed such a public schism between driver and team.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” he said. “Throughout my years in motorsport, I’ve seen disagreements and drivers move on, but this is bizarre.
“I feel for the sport, I certainly feel for Brodie and I feel for the fan base.
“It’s a sad state of affairs … I’m just really gutted for Brodie. Absolutely gutted.
“I’ve had dealings with drivers and contracts and it’s a bit of a two-way street. Sometimes the drivers expectations aren’t what the teams are, but you work it out.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it get to the point where it’s been on-show this bad.”
In this week’s testing at Winton, where Grech now works as a consultant, the Erebus cars wore a stripped-back livery following the departure of three major sponsors in the last week.
Coca-Cola and Shaw and Partners – the two largest sponsors of the team – withdrew, as did Southern Cross Truck Rentals.
Grech claimed that the sponsors weren’t told about the Kostecki situation “until the last minute”, the result being that Erebus is now scrambling to find new backers ahead of the season start on February 23.
Coca-Cola ends Supercars partnership | 00:32
“When we were a factory team at HRT, we always kept Holden, and for that matter the rest of the sponsor group, up to speed on everything,” Grech said.
“We had to. Not only because it’s polite to do so, but they’re your major sponsors, you always let them know before anything got out the door.
“You work with them so they can get well ahead of it.
“Generally, if you do that, they respect it and then look to the team to sort the issue out. You keep them abreast of it.
“But my mail is the sponsor group wasn’t told until the last minute about a dispute that had been going on for a while, and it caught them out.”
It comes after another legendary former team boss Roland Dane claimed that the dispute centred on Erebus being a “toxic workplace”. The relationship between Kostecki and Erebus CEO Barry Ryan is believed to have become frayed during their successful 2023 campaign.
Ryan yesterday broke his silence, saying “we know the truth” and declaring it was “business as usual” for his team.
Bathurst 500 to begin Supercars season | 06:55
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