For the first time since February 2025, Cam Waters is a Supercars race winner.
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The 31-year-old was a class above in the opening race of the betr Darwin Triple Crown, surviving a one lap sprint to the finish to snap a 47-race winless drought for himself and Tickford Racing.
It was an even launch off the front row between Kostecki and De Pasquale, whilst Payne missed the kick off third on the grid, leaving Waters to move into third immediately.
That quickly became second as De Pasquale tried to force the issue around the outside of Turn 1, with Waters diving down the inside to pass the DEWALT Camaro, before placing serious pressure on the Shell V-Power Ford.
Kostecki looked to be in control, but then fell back to the pack rapidly, with Waters getting a serious straight line advantage down the front straight, but unable to do anything about it.
Such was Kostecki’s pace drop off, that nearly the whole field queued up behind him, with Ryan Wood and Anton De Pasquale jumping out of the queue to take early stops on laps 6 and 7.
Kostecki would respond on lap 8, and covered off the early stops from Wood and De Pasquale, whilst Waters and Penrite Racing duo Matt Payne and Kai Allen went long on their first stint.
Waters’ pace was supreme, and the Monster Mustang was still pumping out quicker lap times than what Kostecki could manage, despite a tyre disadvantage.
Cam Waters celebrates. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
By lap 15, Waters’ engineer Sam Potter had told his driver that Kostecki would retake the effective lead after they stopped, however the pace was still line ball with those on fresh tyres.
Waters would peel in at the start of lap 19, and the #6 Ford rejoined just over a second behind Kostecki, who did resume the effective race lead, but had an 11-lap tyre advantage.
By the end of lap 22, the margin was reduced to nothing, and Kostecki offered no resistance as Waters regained the effective lead at Turn 1 on the 23rd lap.
Kostecki’s major concern were the Penrite Mustangs, with Allen pitting on lap 20, and Payne following the next time round, though the Kiwi would fall behind his teammate with a slow stop.
However, they would scythe their way back into podium contention, and with eight laps to go Allen was back on the podium when he dived down the inside of Anton De Pasquale at Turn 1, with Payne swooping in the same go.
They did the same to Brodie Kostecki mere moments before David Reynolds was spun by Jack Le Brocq at Turn 5 with three laps to go, with the Safety Car called just as Reynolds got moving again.
Feeney eyes more success in Darwin! | 01:48
Le Brocq was slapped with a 15 second penalty, spoiling what was shaping up to be an important bounceback day in his quest to jump back into the Finals bubble.
The quick Safety Car left a nervy one lap dash for Waters, and despite Allen throwing everything he could at the Monster Mustang, no one could stop the 2015 Super2 champion as Tickford surged back to form.
Kostecki would hold on to fourth, fending off Will Brown for fifth on the final restart, with De Pasquale, Chaz Mostert, Ryan Wood, Jayden Ojeda, and Macauley Jones rounding out the top 10.
Kostecki has started off pole in the last two races. At the end of both of those races, the same eight words have been uttered.
“I knew I was in a world of hurt.”
To say it’s a far cry from the dominant form of the start of his season is perhaps a bit of a stretch, but it’s another race where a chance to score a race win has gone begging.
“I knew I was in a world of hurt, pretty much,” Kostecki admitted post-race.
“If I wanted to bring the car home in second, third, or fourth, the best thing to do was to unfortunately let him [Waters] go.
“We just weren’t fast enough today, so we’ll go through everything tonight and I’ll get some sleep, I’m pretty tired after that, and come back tomorrow.”
Championship leader Broc Feeney was unable to make major inroads from his lowly starting position of 13th, a four-tyre gamble undone as he ran off at Turn 1 after exiting the pits. Feeney finished
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This article first appeared on supercars.comand was reproduced with permission.