The 2026 NTI Townsville 500 concluded with a commanding victory for Brodie Kostecki, who converted a strong strategy into his 17th career Supercars win after an eventful 68-lap finale on the streets of Townsville.
Cam Waters started from pole position alongside Kostecki, with championship leader Matt Payne and Ryan Wood lining up on the second row. Kai Allen, Chaz Mostert, Broc Feeney, Thomas Randle, Andre Heimgartner and Jayden Ojeda completed the top 10 on the grid, while Will Brown faced another difficult qualifying session and once again started from 19th.
Payne had claimed provisional pole during qualifying, but it wasn’t enough to secure the top spot in the Top 10 Shootout, with just three tenths of a second separating the fastest five drivers.
Waters made a clean launch from pole, but it was Wood who made the biggest impression off the line. The Walkinshaw TWG Racing driver challenged Waters for the lead into Turn 1, briefly edging ahead before Waters held the inside line and forced Wood wide enough to retain the lead. Wood settled into second ahead of Kostecki, Allen and Payne after an aggressive opening sequence.
The race was quickly neutralised after a multi-car incident further back involving Andre Heimgartner, Aaron Cameron, Macauley Jones and Reuben Goodall. All four dropped to the rear of the field, with Heimgartner, Cameron and Jones sustaining significant damage. The safety car was deployed before the trio eventually retired from the race.
Racing resumed on Lap 4, and just four laps later, Kostecki made his move, diving down the inside of Wood to take second place while Waters stretched his advantage to just over a second.
The opening pit stop window proved to be the turning point of the race. Kostecki, Payne and Ojeda all stopped early, while Waters elected to stay out longer. Running in clean air, Kostecki undercut the race leader, and when Waters finally stopped at the end of Lap 25, he rejoined behind both Kostecki and Payne.
By the completion of the first pit cycle on Lap 34, Kostecki had established a 6.6-second lead over Payne, with Waters running third. Mostert, Wood, Feeney, Allen, Ojeda, Anton De Pasquale and Brown rounded out the top 10.
Allen was among the final drivers to make his first stop, sacrificing track position but giving himself a significant tyre advantage for the remainder of the race. Meanwhile, both Payne and Waters carried slightly more fuel than Kostecki, whose early stop had required a shorter fill.
Waters reclaimed second place on Lap 38 after passing Payne at Turn 2 following a brief battle, before Payne became the first of the leading contenders to make his final compulsory stop on Lap 43.
Kostecki comfortably maintained the advantage after completing his second stop, benefiting from fresher tyres and a considerably shorter final stint than his opening run. Behind him, both Waters and Allen lost valuable time with slow pit stops.
Allen’s charge unravelled after a delayed left-front tyre change forced him to stop completely once the car had been dropped off the jacks, while Waters also suffered a slow stop and was unable to take on as much fuel as his team had planned.
Once the final round of pit stops had been completed, Kostecki led Payne by 3.8 seconds, with Mostert holding third.
From there, Kostecki was never challenged. The DJR driver steadily extended his advantage before taking the chequered flag by nine seconds to secure victory in the final race of the NTI Townsville 500 and claim his 17th Supercars win.
Payne finished second to further strengthen his championship position, extending his lead to 92 points over Broc Feeney, while Waters completed the podium in third.
Mostert crossed the line fourth ahead of Wood in fifth, with Feeney, Allen, Brown, Matt Le Brocq and Ojeda completing the top 10.
The Supercars Championship now heads west for the Perth Super 440, to be held from July 31 to August 2.
Header Image: Supercars
