![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/204801.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWaters extended his standing as the best active Supercars driver at the Reid Park Street Circuit with his fourth Townsville win for Tickford Racing.<\/p>\n
After a slow start dropped Kostecki to fourth, the Dick Johnson Racing driver worked his way back to second before threatening to usurp Waters before the pit stops.<\/p>\n
Kostecki\u2019s decision to run long ultimately dropped him back to fourth before passing Grove Racing duo Kai Allen and Matt Payne before setting about attacking Waters.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Waters held sway to secure victory by two tenths of a second.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty excited to get down to Turn 1 in first, that really set up our race,\u201d said Waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe probably didn\u2019t have the outright pace, but we had really good tyre life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rolled out in practice and didn\u2019t feel amazing. I\u2019m a little bit shocked we\u2019ve got a P1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was lucky I didn\u2019t have another lap to hold [Brodie off]. He was coming pretty fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
From pole position, Kostecki was slow away and immediately lost out to Walkinshaw TWG Racing\u2019s Chaz Mostert and Payne.<\/p>\n
At the end of the first lap, Broc Feeney had made up five places to 11th while Triple Eight teammate Will Brown was up six places to 13th.<\/p>\n
On Lap 2, Aaron Seton tipped Brad Jones Racing driver Macauley Jones into a spin at Turn 2. The Matt Stone Racing wildcard was given a 15-second penalty for the incident and finished last.<\/p>\n
Payne made his move on Mostert at Turn 11 on Lap 3 to take second place and that opened the door for Kostecki to pounce and follow the Kiwi through to take third at Turn 12.<\/p>\n
Come Lap 4, Kostecki lunged Payne into Turn 11 in almost identical fashion to reclaim second.<\/p>\n
While all that was happening, Waters was one-and-a-half seconds up the road. However, that gap soon came down to under one second as Kostecki charged forward.<\/p>\n
Feeney got as high as 11th before a bold lunge on Fraser into Turn 11 wound up with the Mustang running wide. That let Erebus Motorsport\u2019s Cooper Murray and Brown by.<\/p>\n
Moments later, Brown and Murray banged doors through the final turn. The trio traded places, but ultimately Brown cleared them all to be 10th by Lap 10.<\/p>\n
By Lap 11, Kostecki had gotten to the back bumper of Waters. Third-placed Payne was in no man\u2019s land and complaining of an engine gremlin.<\/p>\n
Kai Allen pitted on Lap 13 out of fifth while third- and fourth-placed Payne and Mostert pitted on Lap 17. The undercut paid dividends initially for Allen, who usurped Payne and Mostert.<\/p>\n
Waters reacted on Lap 18 and pitted out of the lead.<\/p>\n
With fresher tyres, Payne passed Allen at Turn 11 on Lap 19.<\/p>\n
Kostecki elected to run the longest of any driver, pitting out of the lead on Lap 24 and came back onto the track between Allen and Mostert.<\/p>\n
The Dick Johnson Racing driver wasted little time getting by the Grove Racing young gun, completing a pass at Turn 13 on his out-lap.<\/p>\n
As the leaders closed in on the chequered flag, the gaps between the top three began to condense.<\/p>\n
With just over two laps to go, Kostecki cleared Payne for second at the final turn and set about chasing Waters with a 1.2-second deficit at the start-finish line.<\/p>\n
Kostecki got to Waters\u2019 rear bumper at Turn 11 but couldn\u2019t make the decisive move and ultimately Waters was victorious.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a call from me [to stay out],\u201d said Kostecki of his strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw Cam pitted on the lap I was going to pit, so I didn\u2019t want to come out behind him and have the same tyres.<\/p>\n
\u201c[I probably needed] another corner or two [at the end]. I thought about having a big dive at the last corner, but Cam is a pretty smart racer.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe placed his car in a spot where I\u2019d have to crash into him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne was third while Allen and Mostert completed the top five.<\/p>\n
Beyond the top five, Randle was sixth while Brown made a miraculous recovery to seventh. Ryan Wood was eighth, Jayden Ojeda ninth, and Broc Feeney the last of the top 10 runners.<\/p>\n
The NTI Townsville 500 continues on Saturday with qualifying at 11:25am AEST.<\/p>\n
Results: Repco Supercars Championship NTI Townsville 500, Race 1<\/p>\n
Pos
\nNum
\nDrviver
\nTeam
\nCar
\nLaps\/Diff
\nGap<\/p>\n
1
\n6
\nCameron Waters
\nTickford Racing
\nFord Mustang GT
\n35 laps<\/p>\n
2
\n17
\nBrodie Kostecki
\nDick Johnson Racing
\nFord Mustang GT
\n0.200
\n0.200<\/p>\n
3
\n19
\nMatthew Payne
\nGrove Racing
\nFord Mustang GT
\n1.5649
\n1.3649<\/p>\n
4
\n26
\nKai Allen
\nGrove Racing
\nFord Mustang GT
\n7.2049
\n5.6400<\/p>\n
5
\n1
\nChaz Mostert
\nWalkinshaw TWG Racing
\nToyota GR Supra A90
\n9.2817
\n2.0768<\/p>\n
6
\n55
\nThomas Randle
\nTickford Racing
\nFord Mustang GT
\n10.6198
\n1.3381<\/p>\n
7
\n888
\nWilliam Brown
\nTriple Eight Race Engineering
\nFord Mustang GT
\n11.4130
\n0.7932<\/p>\n
8
\n2
\nRyan Wood
\nWalkinshaw TWG Racing
\nToyota GR Supra A90
\n13.9253
\n2.5123<\/p>\n
9
\n31
\nJayden Ojeda
\nPremiAir Racing
\nChev Camaro ZL1
\n16.0517
\n2.1264<\/p>\n
10
\n88
\nBroc Feeney
\nTriple Eight Race Engineering
\nFord Mustang GT
\n16.2478
\n0.1961<\/p>\n
11
\n4
\nJack Le Brocq
\nMatt Stone Racing
\nChev Camaro ZL1
\n17.6522
\n1.4044<\/p>\n
12
\n7
\nJames Golding
\nBlanchard Racing Team
\nFord Mustang GT
\n19.6032
\n1.9510<\/p>\n
13
\n99
\nCooper Murray
\nErebus Motorsport
\nChev Camaro ZL1
\n22.0728
\n2.4696<\/p>\n
14
\n18
\nAnton De Pasquale
\nTeam 18
\nChev Camaro ZL1
\n25.3996
\n3.3268<\/p>\n
15
\n8
\nAndre Heimgartner
\nBrad Jones Racing
\nToyota GR Supra A90
\n30.0583
\n4.6587<\/p>\n
16
\n20
\nDavid Reynolds
\nTeam 18
\nChev Camaro ZL1
\n32.8411
\n2.7828<\/p>\n
17
\n38
\nRylan Gray
\nDick Johnson Racing
\nFord Mustang GT
\n36.4526
\n3.6115<\/p>\n
18
\n11
\nJackson Walls
\nTriple Eight Race Engineering
\nFord Mustang GT
\n37.2278
\n0.7752<\/p>\n
19
\n14
\nCameron Hill
\nBrad Jones Racing
\nToyota GR Supra A90
\n38.1425
\n0.9147<\/p>\n
20
\n3
\nAaron Cameron
\nBlanchard Racing Team
\nFord Mustang GT
\n38.3923
\n0.2498<\/p>\n
21
\n777
\nDeclan Fraser
\nPremiAir Racing
\nChev Camaro ZL1
\n41.0374
\n2.6451<\/p>\n
22
\n9
\nJobe Stewart
\nErebus Motorsport
\nChev Camaro ZL1
\n43.2728
\n2.2354<\/p>\n
23
\n10
\nZach Bates
\nMatt Stone Racing
\nChev Camaro ZL1
\n45.4326
\n2.1598<\/p>\n
24
\n96
\nMacauley Jones
\nBrad Jones Racing
\nToyota GR Supra A90
\n47.7768
\n2.3442<\/p>\n
25
\n5
\nReuben Goodall
\nTickford Racing
\nFord Mustang GT
\n56.5361
\n8.7593<\/p>\n
26
\n30
\nAaron Seton
\nMatt Stone Racing
\nChev Camaro ZL1
\n1:14.9738
\n18.4377<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Waters leads Brodie Kostecki during the Townsville 500. Image: InSyde Media Waters extended his standing as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,1732,213],"class_list":["post-519032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot4","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Waters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/INS17210-copy.jpg\")