Waters beats resurgent Kostecki in Friday Townsville thriller

Waters extended his standing as the best active Supercars driver at the Reid Park Street Circuit with his fourth Townsville win for Tickford Racing.

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.

Kostecki’s 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.

Ultimately, Waters held sway to secure victory by two tenths of a second.

“I was pretty excited to get down to Turn 1 in first, that really set up our race,” said Waters.

“We probably didn’t have the outright pace, but we had really good tyre life.

“We rolled out in practice and didn’t feel amazing. I’m a little bit shocked we’ve got a P1.

“I was lucky I didn’t have another lap to hold [Brodie off]. He was coming pretty fast.”

From pole position, Kostecki was slow away and immediately lost out to Walkinshaw TWG Racing’s Chaz Mostert and Payne.

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.

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.

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.

Come Lap 4, Kostecki lunged Payne into Turn 11 in almost identical fashion to reclaim second.

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.

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’s Cooper Murray and Brown by.

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.

By Lap 11, Kostecki had gotten to the back bumper of Waters. Third-placed Payne was in no man’s land and complaining of an engine gremlin.

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.

Waters reacted on Lap 18 and pitted out of the lead.

With fresher tyres, Payne passed Allen at Turn 11 on Lap 19.

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.

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.

As the leaders closed in on the chequered flag, the gaps between the top three began to condense.

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.

Kostecki got to Waters’ rear bumper at Turn 11 but couldn’t make the decisive move and ultimately Waters was victorious.

“It was a call from me [to stay out],” said Kostecki of his strategy.

“I saw Cam pitted on the lap I was going to pit, so I didn’t want to come out behind him and have the same tyres.

“[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.

“He placed his car in a spot where I’d have to crash into him.”

Payne was third while Allen and Mostert completed the top five.

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.

The NTI Townsville 500 continues on Saturday with qualifying at 11:25am AEST.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship NTI Townsville 500, Race 1