Cameron Waters beats charging Brodie Kostecki in Townsville opener

Cameron Waters withstood a late charge from Brodie Kostecki in the first Supercars Championship race in Townsville to claim victory.

The Tickford Racing driver started second and made a lightning start while pole-sitter Kostecki dropped down to fourth.

Walkinshaw TWG Racing driver Chaz Mostert and Grove Racing’s Matt Payne got up into second and third place respectively on the first lap.

Payne then passed Toyota driver Mostert for second place on lap three, with Kostecki following past for third.

Kostecki then reeled Payne in and made the move for second place a lap later at the same corner.

The Dick Johnson Racing driver was last of the top drivers to pit and emerged behind Kai Allen and Payne.

But Kostecki was quick to pass Allen and got past Payne for second with two laps left.

He then closed right in on race leader Waters but could not get close enough on the last lap to challenge for the lead.

Waters won the race by just two tenths of a second ahead of Kostecki.

Payne was third, 1.5 seconds behind, while Allen was a distant fourth, seven seconds behind the leaders.

Mostert came home in fifth while Waters’ Tickford Racing team-mate Thomas Randle rounded off the top six.

Triple Eight driver Will Brown made an impressive charge from 19th on the grid after technical issues during qualifying to finish seventh.

Former points leader and Triple Eight team-mate Broc Feeney started 16th after a disastrous qualifying session and made progress during the race as well, climbing up to finish tenth.

The second race of the weekend starts at 12:10 local time/04:10 CEST on Saturday.