The video was taken at the Supercars season launch at NEP Studios on Tuesday night, which featured a car from each homologation team and all 24 full-time drivers.
Dick Johnson Racing Ford driver Kostecki was filmed poking his head under the rear of Chaz Mostert’s Walkinshaw TWG Toyota Supra and Brown’s Triple Eight Mustang.
It raised eyebrows among the teams as suspension settings are a closely guarded secret and, in Triple Eight’s case, is the sort of information it sells to customers.
Speedcafe understands Motorsport Australia stewards were consulted on the alleged espionage, but no action was ultimately taken.
Brown raised the topic on the latest episode of the Lucky Dogs Podcast that he co-hosts with Kostecki, admitting he did not realise the potential consequences of posting the footage.
The Triple Eight driver only began filming when Kostecki was already under the Toyota and then, amid much laughter, attempted to stop Kostecki from also spying on the Ford.
“We were probably joking around at the end of the day,” said Brown to Kostecki on the podcast.
“Typical you, though, you hopped under the Toyota and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll film this,’ just thinking it was a joke.”
Brown confirmed Triple Eight’s displeasure with the cheeky peek from Kostecki, who is renowned for his technical aptitude.
“Our team wasn’t happy about it, but I think that both cars that you looked under, people were unhappy, because you can see all like where the suspension is mounted and all of that sort of stuff,” he said.
“I can see both sides of it. We’re in a competitive sport, obviously people don’t want to give information away and you’re just sliding under and looking at it.”
Kostecki, who was summoned to a meeting with Supercars motorsport manager Tim Edwards over the matter, insisted he did not see any sensitive information while under the cars.
“The Walkinshaw guys actually covered everything up, so they did a pretty good job. But honestly, I saw nothing, because it was just a joke for social media,” he said.
“But anyways, it was pretty political after that. And everyone spent two days trying to send me to the stewards. So that was pretty good.”
The situation played out ahead of Triple Eight’s return event with Ford, having taken over homologation team duties from Dick Johnson Racing.
A spy saga also occurred amid Triple Eight’s move from Ford to Holden back in 2010, when a Kelly Racing mechanic took photos of the underside of one of its Commodores during the lead-up to the season opener.
That case resulted in the team taking its own disciplinary action.
This article first appeared on Speedcafe.com, a sister site to MotorRacing.com.
