Brodie Kostecki storms to victory in Townsville finale

Brodie Kostecki picked up his first Supercars win since April with victory in the final race of the weekend in Townsville.

The DJR driver had qualified on the front row of the grid for the race alongside Cam Waters, who was bidding to try and replicate his success from the opening race of the weekend, with points leader Matt Payne third quickest.

Waters held the lead when the lights went out at the start, with Kostecki being overhauled by a fast-starting Ryan Wood early in the opening lap – with Wood briefly also managing to edge ahead of Waters before he regained his place at the ehad of the field.

An incident further down the pack involving multiple drivers – including Aaron Cameron, Macauley Jones, Andre Heimgartner and Reuben Goodall – then saw the race head behind the safety car, with Waters able to control the restart to stay out front.

Kostecki was the first of the front-runners to drive in to make his first stop and it would prove to be a wise call to dive in early, with Waters going nine laps longer at the front before he pitted.

Having already got up to speed and having turned a number of quick laps, Kostecki jumped to the lead ahead of Payne, who had also stopped early.

Waters slipped back to third but chased down Payne to move into second spot, with the points leader electing to pit first for a second time to leave him with a long run to the flag.

Kostecki retained the lead in his second stop ahead of Payne, with Waters losing ground when he suffered a slow tyre change – and also failed to take on as much fuel as expected.

As Kostecki stormed to victory ahead of Payne, Waters managed to battle his way back through into third ahead of Chaz Mostert despite being forced to try and save fuel in the closing stages to make up for the fact he hadn’t taken on the required amount in his stop.

Mostert would end up less than a second behind Waters in fourth spot, with Ryan Wood in the second of the Toyota just behind in fifth.

Broc Feeney rounded out the top six, with Jack Le Brocq being the best placed of the Chevrolet drivers – albeit back in ninth spot.

Payne holds a lead of 92 points over Feeney in the standings ahead of the next event in Perth, with Kostecki back up to third having edged in front of Waters.

The series now heads for Perth for the penultimate round of the Sprint Cup element of the season.