AN opportunity to win a maiden Bathurst 1000 in its 60th anniversary and take a major step towards a maiden Supercars Championship?
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It's all there within Brodie Kostecki's reach as he heads into this Sunday's next edition of the Great Race.
With six top two placings over his past seven races leading into Bathurst - including a runner-up finish last round at Sandown - Kostecki comes to Mount Panorama in excellent form and well placed to secure his biggest career win.
But there's 161 laps and a talented field of rivals still to navigate - not to mention vital practice and qualifying sessions leading up to the big day.
Still, it's been a dream year so far for the Erebus Motorsport driver who had won just a single race and achieved three other podium finishes over his first two full-time seasons in Supercars.
But Kostecki, along with Erebus teammate Will Brown (currently fourth in the championship), have excelled under this year's Gen3 technical regulations and rarely faltered across the course of the season.
Kostecki said it's exciting to venture to Bathurst in such a position.
"It's exciting but things can change very quickly at the mountain, so we're just keeping our heads down and focusing on results," he said.
"Our chances of success this year were going to be far greater with Gen3. It was a bit of a reset for the whole category. In our first practice session of the year, prior to the first race, we already knew that we were going to have a pretty good year.
"I'm not sure how good of a year I thought that I'd have, but for our success and results to carry on right through the year has been pretty cool to see."
In a short space of time Kostecki has built up a solid Mount Panorama record.
He finished ninth in his Erebus debut in 2020 alongside Anton de Pasquale and over his past two attempts with co-driver David Russell has finished third and fourth.
Kostecki and Russell go for attempt number three together this Sunday, this time with a car that's got even greater potential to finish on top.
"We've had a great showing over the last few years that we've been there and to go there with the Gen3 car is very exciting," he said.
"The pairing of David and myself has been really consistent over the last few years and we had a great showing a Sandown as well. I think that'll play a pretty good part on Sunday.
"We came away from Sandown with minimal damage and we've had the chance to do a test day leading up to Bathurst as well, so we're as prepared as we can be."
The build up to the endurance season is one that every Supercars driver looks forward to but Kostecki has done his best to never get ahead of himself, especially with a championship lead at stake.
"I've just been focusing on each race at a time. Bathurst is the biggest race of the race, but it's just another race when you think about it," he said.
"I love driving race cars and I just look at it that I get to drive around one of the best tracks in the world for 600 kilometres and get to do a few practice sessions."
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