Kostecki dominated the 35-lap sprint race, beating Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters by four seconds.

The 2023 champion let out a yelp as he took the chequered flag, ending a 23-race win drought dating back to Surfers Paradise when he took his last win with Erebus Motorsport.

After Waters came Anton De Pasquale, who surged from fifth to third for his just his second Team 18 podium.

“That felt awesome. The Shell V-Power Mustang was on fire today,” he said.

“I had Cam breathing down my neck the whole race so I knew I couldn’t make a mistake. What an awesome feeling, to get the monkey off the back is unreal.

“I’ve been pretty fortunate to win some pretty cool races, but this feels special.”

It was a relatively even start between Kostecki and Waters, but with the inside line it was the #38 Shell V-Power Ford Mustang that prevailed.

Behind them, De Pasquale in the #18 DeWalt Camaro usurped Matt Payne’s #19 Penrite Mustang and got to fourth.

Jaxon Evans in the #12 SCT Camaro was caught up in the Lap 1 melee. The right front corner of his car collapsed, which relegated him to the pits.

The Tripe Eight pair of Broc Feeney and Will Brown were big movers on the first lap, up four places apiece to 10th and 16th respectively.

Battling in the mid-pack, Brown nearly found himself facing the wrong way after contact with Cameron Hill in the #4 MSR Camaro on Lap 2.

Brown benefited from a battle between CoolDrive Racing’s Aaron Cameron and R&J Batteries Racing driver Andre Heimgartner.

Heimgartner in the #8 Camaro passed the preceding #3 Mustang at Turn 3, which opened the door for Brown in the #1 Camaro.

Moments later, James Courtney in the #3 Snowy River Caravans Mustang swiped the back bumper of his teammate.

Cameron got loose and left the door open for Courtney to come through before they made contact. Cameron got spat out into the grass as a result and plummeted down the order after brushing the tyre barrier.

A bold pass at the third-to-last corner on Davison in the #17 Mustang got De Pasquale up to third. The DJR driver covered under brakes, which put De Pasquale on the dirty side of the road. De Pasquale locked up his rear tyres and slid into Davison.

Despite contact, there was no investigation and De Pasquale pressed on while Payne made the most of the displaced Davison to get up to fourth.

Pit stops began on Lap 10 with Wood making the first move for rear tyres. He pulled off a massive undercut but ultimately fell to 12th as those who took four tyres blew by him.

The front-runners opted to pit later, all of which elected to take four tyres. Waters pitted with 12 laps to go and Kostecki responded.

The #6 Monster Energy Mustang brought a three-second gap down to a few car lengths before the margin blew back out to four seconds.

De Pasquale was a distant third while Payne held station in fourth. Bryce Fullwood was a quiet achiever in fifth driving the #14 Mr Umami Camaro.

Mostert rose to sixth from ninth on the grid while Davison was the biggest loser of the front-runners, dropping from his third place starting spot to seventh.

Feeney recovered from 14th to eighth while Le Brocq was ninth and Brown another improver to 10th.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship NTI Townsville 500, Race 1