Waters storms to drought-breaking Darwin triumph

Waters strategised his way to the win, electing to run long before pitting the #6 Tickford Racing Ford Mustang.

With a tyre advantage, Waters was able to outpace pole position winner Brodie Kostecki and pass the #17 Dick Johnson Racing driver with 13 laps to go.

His win ends a 47-race drought dating back to Sydney Motorsport Park in 2025.

It’s also the first win for the Ford Mustang at Hidden Valley Raceway in the Gen3 era.

“I’m so proud of my team, they’ve been digging deep, built me a brand new car,” he said.

“We haven’t had the best start to the year but have still been there or thereabouts.

“They really put their heads together for this weekend, the cars have been super speedy.

“As soon as I got into the first lap or two I knew I had a pretty fast car and just had to try and convert from there.

“I thought Brodie was going to make it a bit harder for me but I had a fair bit of pace with the fresh tyre compared to him.

“We had a really cool battle at the start, his tyre was still coming up when mine was going straight away.”

It was an even start between Kostecki from pole position and Team 18’s Anton De Pasquale alongside him.

Entering Turn 1, the top two went side-by-side. That opened the door for fourth place starter Waters to slip up the inside of De Pasquale and snag second.

PremiAir Racing’s Jayden Ojeda was the biggest loser on the opening lap, down seven places to 12th from fifth on the grid.

Come Lap 4, Waters showed the nose into Turn 1 on Kostecki who defended valiantly. Their battle backed the field up deluxe, though Waters couldn’t quite find a way through initially.

Ryan Wood pitted the #2 Walkinshaw TWG Toyota Supa from seventh position to get out of the traffic for two tyres.

De Pasquale followed suit and pitted at the end of Lap 6 with Jack Le Brocq, Jayden Ojeda, and Cameron Hill in tow.

Kostecki responded to De Pasquale and pitted at the end of Lap 7 for rear tyres, giving Waters the race lead and clear air on the nose of his Mustang.

Exiting pit lane, Kostecki had a few car lengths gap over De Pasquale.

The top three of Waters and Grove Racing duo Matt Payne and Kai Allen skipped away from Triple Eight’s Will Brown who had to fend off Walkinshaw TWG driver Chaz Mostert.

Broc Feeney’s day went from bad to worse after he pitted and went off at Turn 1 on cold tyres and lost positions to Zach Bates and Aaron Cameron.

Waters finally pitted on Lap 20 and returned to the race a car length ahead of De Pasquale and a little more than a second in arrears of Kostecki.

Once the front-runners pitted and the field was cleansed, Kostecki led Waters, De Pasquale, Wood, quiet achiever David Reynolds, Allen, Payne, Le Brocq, Brown, and Ojeda.

Waters’ newer tyres paid dividends with 13 laps to go. Kostecki opened the door for Waters to breeze by and take the lead at Turn 1.

The Grove Mustangs soon began to make headway on their newer tyres. Allen and Payne scythed their way through and with 12 laps to go were fifth and sixth respectively.

With 10 laps remaining, Allen began to harangue De Pasquale for the final place on the podium.

Allen got by entering Turn 1 with eight laps left and Payne followed him through, relegating de Pasquale to fifth.

Waters was left to his own devices at the front of the field as Kostecki faded into the clutches of the Penrite Mustangs.

They wasted little time, passing Kostecki into Turn 1 with three laps to go.

There was late drama with four laps remaining when Le Brocq got into the back of David Reynolds and spun the Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro.

Reynolds stopped momentarily and the Safety Car was called.

That set up a one-lap dash to the chequered flag. Waters went on the defensive into Turn 1 and thwarted any chance of an Allen lunge.

Ultimately, Waters held on to win by just a few car lengths over Allen while Payne completed the top three.

Despite his tyre deficit, Kostecki was fourth ahead of Brown. De Pasquale was sixth, Mostert seventh, Wood eighth, Ojeda ninth and Macauley Jones the last of the top 10 runners.

Le Brocq was given a 15-second penalty for spinning Reynolds and finished last. Reynolds, meanwhile, was second-to-last.

Championship leader Broc Feeney was only 14th, cutting his lead over Payne in the championship to 59 points.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship betr Darwin Triple Crown, Race 1