Cam Waters and Tickford Racing have put a tough mid-season behind them with a first win of the season in the first of three Supercars races at Hidden Valley in Australia’s Northern Territory.
In the first-ever Friday race at the Darwin circuit, Waters and his Ford Mustang came from fourth on the grid and pitted later than early leader Brodie Kostecki (Dick Johnson Racing Ford) to take the lead at Turn 1 and come home to a narrow victory, in a race that featured a one-lap dash to the flag after a late safety car.
“A long hard slog, for sure,” said Waters, whose victory ended a 47-race winless streak. “We haven’t had the best start to the year but we have been there or thereabouts.
“I thought he [Kostecki] was going to make it a little bit harder for me but I had a fresher tyre. Amazing to get a win, it has been a hard year.”
In unseasonably cool conditions (it even rained lightly during the second part of Qualifying), Kostecki took the early lead from the Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro of Anton De Pasquale – the pair shared the front row for the fifth time of their careers. Both lost positions in the race, with the Grove Racing Fords of Kai Allen and Matt Payne pushing the 2023 champion back to fourth in one fell swoop on lap 32.
Allen, who scored a podium at the track a year ago, said: “I love this track.
“I need to get the qualifying a little better but the race car was really good. I got to the back of Brodie’s rear bar and we tried to get a double podium, and it worked out.”
Payne rued the loss a couple of seconds when a rear wheel stuck during his pitstop.
“Kai was making the moves for us,” he said. “I thought the car was pretty speedy but we just had a hiccup during the pitstop.”
Earlier, Kostecki shrugged off a problem with his engine’s throttle body, which stranded him in the garage for the opening 15 minutes of the sole Practice session, and a bout of flu, to take pole position. But his car lacked the race pace of the other Fords and he had to settle for fourth place at the finish.
Will Brown took fifth for Triple Eight Racing, thereby giving Ford a sweep of the top five places at a track that has previously featured only Chevrolet wins during the Gen3 era.
The best of the rest was De Pasquale, just ahead of the Toyota GR Supra of Walkinshaw TWG’s Chaz Mostert. The defending Supercars Champion just missed making the Qualifying cut to the top 10 session and started 11th, before passing team-mate Ryan Wood on his way to seventh.
Points leader Broc Feeney, the winner of six of the eight previous Gen3 races at the circuit, started from 13th on the grid after a tricky qualifying session. He did his cause no good at all by running off immediately when rejoining after his pitstop and complained of a lack of straightline speed during the race, finishing 14th. As a result, the 90-point lead he brought to the event has been reduced to 59.
The Supercars teams and drivers will return to action on Saturday and Sunday with two 70-lap, 200km races.
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