Cam Waters wins Adelaide opener as Brodie Kostecki crowned

Cam Waters scored victory for the third time in 2023 in the opening race of the Supercars season finale in Adelaide, but it was Brodie Kostecki who took the main headlines as he wrapped up the title with a race to go.

Kostecki held the points lead going into the weekend and was able to strengthen his advantage at the top when he scored pole in the Top Ten Shootout and main rival Shane van Gisbergen could only line up in sixth place.

The key moment of the race would come within seconds of the start, with Kostecki able to maintain his lead at the front but van Gisbergen hitting trouble back in the pack.

Having been slow away from the line, the outgoing multiple champion came into turn four tucked in behind the Tickford Mustang of Waters – meaning he was unable to see what had developed ahead.

Going into the corner, Anton de Pasquale and Will Brown had clashed with he end result being a trip into the fence for Brown, who had then come to a near halt on the circuit. When Waters dived to the right to avoid the Erebus car, van Gisbergen was left with nowhere to go and hit the rear of his rival, damaging his front suspension and putting him out of the action, with Brown also unable to continue.

It meant the safety car was called into action and with van Gisbergn no longer in action, left Kostecki only needing to make it to the flag to take his maiden title.

The points leader stayed out front on the restart but mindful of the fact that his rival was no longer in the race, he didn’t defend too hard when Reynolds eventually made a move for the lead on lap nine, with Thomas Randle nipping past a few laps later as Kostecki again focused more on the long game.

Through the opening phase of pit stops, Reynolds was able to maintain his lead ahead of Randle, with Waters jumping up into third spot ahead of the champion-elect, and he duly overhauled his less experienced team-mate to take second before going after the leader.

It didn’t take long for Waters – running in a special livery to honour the late Ken Block – to find a way past Reynolds into the lead and he then made his second stop ahead of his Grove Racing rival, with the pair going side-by-side before Waters regained his place at the head of the field.

The pair would run together throughout the remainder of the race, with Waters seemingly cruising towards the win before Reynolds came back at him to bring the gap at the front down to under a second.

He was unable to get close enough to make a serious move however, with Waters taking the flag six tenths of a second clear to wrap up the win.

That marked his second successive victory after a win on the Gold Coast last time out.

Behind, Randle took the flag in third spot to complete a Mustang lock-out of the podium places, with Chaz Mostert holding off Broc Feeney in the final stages to secure fourth place.

That left Kostecki to take the flag in sixth as he didn’t put up any huge battle against his rivals to bring his car home for the points needed to take an unassailable advantage in the standings going into Sunday’s final race of the campaign.

Will Davison, James Courtney, Andre Heimgartner and Scott Pye would round out the top ten.