Cameron Waters has ended the longest drought of his Supercars career, winning the opening race of the Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley to claim his first victory since the 2025 Sydney season-opener.
The win for the Tickford Racing driver ended a 16-month, 47-race winless run — a stretch that began after he swept the 2025 Sydney rounds and then watched his form fade. It also marked the result of the first Friday race in Supercars history, with the championship adopting a Friday start at the Northern Territory venue.
“It's been a long, hard slog for sure,” Waters said after the race. “I haven't had the best start to the year, but we've still been there or thereabouts.”
Brodie Kostecki had taken pole position for Dick Johnson Racing despite a throttle-body problem that stranded him in the garage for the opening 15 minutes of the sole practice session, and a bout of flu. But his Mustang lacked race pace, and he pitted early as Waters gambled on a long first stint.
Waters did not pit until lap 20, emerging just over a second behind Kostecki but with significantly fresher rubber. It took only a handful of laps for him to reel in his fellow Ford runner, and the race-winning move came at Turn 1 with 13 laps to go.
“I thought he was going to make it a little bit harder for me but I had a fresher tyre,” Waters said of the pass. “Amazing to get a win, it has been a hard year.”
A late Safety Car bunched the field and set up a one-lap dash to the flag, but Waters defended firmly into Turn 1 to hold off the fast-finishing Grove Racing pair. He took the chequered flag by just a few car lengths from Kai Allen, with Matt Payne completing the podium. Kostecki held on for fourth ahead of Will Brown, completing a Ford lockout of the top five on a day when heavily overcast skies left the air temperature around 10 degrees cooler than a typical Darwin round — among the coldest races the circuit has hosted.
“I'm so proud of my team,” Waters added. “They've been digging deep, built me a brand new car.”
The afternoon was far less kind to championship leader Broc Feeney. The Triple Eight driver went off at Turn 1 on cold tyres after his pit stop, dropping down the order to finish 14th and cutting his championship advantage over Payne to 59 points. Anton De Pasquale came home sixth ahead of Chaz Mostert.
With two 70-lap, 200km races still to come across Saturday and Sunday, Waters has handed Tickford early momentum at a circuit where the team has now opened its 2026 account in the most emphatic fashion possible.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports](https://motorsports.global/article/cam-waters-snaps-47-race-drought-to-win-darwin-opener). Visit for full coverage.*