Kai Allen has taken Grove Racing and Ford to the top step of the podium at the second Supercars race at Hidden Valley in Darwin.

The rising star of Supercars celebrated his 21st birthday a week early when he rose from sixth on the opening lap to pick off the cars in front, including team-mate Matt Payne. Allen managed to track down early leader Cam Waters, who started from pole position in the Tickford Ford Mustang. But Waters, the winner of Friday’s race, had no answer to the leader’s pace, running wide on lap 41, and came home in second place.

By the chequered flag Allen had run away, pulling a lead of nearly nine seconds over the final 20 laps of the 70-lap journey. It was his fourth podium finish in five races at the Hidden Valley circuit.

Supercars Darwin: Cam Waters takes first win of 2026 as Ford sweeps top five

“I knew I had something early in the race,” said Allen, who gained early track position with a short fill in his opening pitstop.

“Once I got out on those fresh tyres and got past Cam, I knew we could pull away. It was not easy going from fifth but I managed to do it. I could see Cam moving around on Matty, and the boys made the call and I got past.”

Over the final laps of the race Waters had to fight hard to hold off Brodie Kostecki. The Dick Johnson Racing Ford driver was feeling the effects of flu for the second day in a row, but his cause was aided somewhat when Payne had to serve a five-second time penalty at his first of two pitstops, after behind adjudged to have crept at the start.

Waters admitted that his Mustang did not have the speed to take a second win on the weekend.

“I was happy to get another podium, I am happy to maximise what we had then, we still got a trophy when the car was not perfect,” he said. “We have taken a big step forward this weekend.”

Kostecki was quite physically distressed after the race, with much hotter conditions than experienced on Friday amplifying the effects of his ongoing ’flu and a failing drinks bottle making things even worse. While he was being treated by medical staff his trophy was accepted on the podium by race engineer George Commins.

Completing the Ford sweep of the top five placings was the Triple Eight Mustang of Will Brown. He had to put on an early charge after starting outside the top 10, while team-mate Broc Feeney was better than he had been on Friday, starting sixth and gaining a position on the opening lap. But the blue cars were again not quite as sharp as their Ford rivals and he lost a place to Chaz Mostert with a dozen laps to go.

Mostert put in the drive of the race. After running with the leaders he was unlucky to find some power steering fluid (ironically dropped by Walkinshaw TWG team-mate Ryan Wood) and run off the track, dropping from sixth to 14th. From that point he was on a mission, gaining positions lap by lap and eventually restoring that sixth place.

Anton De Pasquale was the best of the Chevrolet Camaro drivers in eighth place. The Team 18 driver started a lowly 20th on the grid after finding that he had a lack of grip in Qualifying, but a dogged drive lifted him right onto Feeney’s rear bumper at the end of a tough race.

Feeney’s points lead has been further reduced, dropping from 59 pre-race to 36, with Payne second.

The Supercars and drivers will return to the track on Sunday for another 70-lap, 200km race.

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Cam Waters and Tickford Racing have put a tough mid-season behind them with a first win of the season in the first of three Supercars races at Hidden Valley in Australia’s Northern Territory.

In the first-ever Friday race at the Darwin circuit, Waters and his Ford Mustang came from fourth on the grid and pitted later than early leader Brodie Kostecki (Dick Johnson Racing Ford) to take the lead at Turn 1 and come home to a narrow victory, in a race that featured a one-lap dash to the flag after a late safety car.

“A long hard slog, for sure,” said Waters, whose victory ended a 47-race winless streak. “We haven’t had the best start to the year but we have been there or thereabouts.

“I thought he [Kostecki] was going to make it a little bit harder for me but I had a fresher tyre. Amazing to get a win, it has been a hard year."

In unseasonably cool conditions (it even rained lightly during the second part of Qualifying), Kostecki took the early lead from the Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro of Anton De Pasquale – the pair shared the front row for the fifth time of their careers. Both lost positions in the race, with the Grove Racing Fords of Kai Allen and Matt Payne pushing the 2023 champion back to fourth in one fell swoop on lap 32.

Allen, who scored a podium at the track a year ago, said: “I love this track.

“I need to get the qualifying a little better but the race car was really good. I got to the back of Brodie’s rear bar and we tried to get a double podium, and it worked out.”

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Payne rued the loss a couple of seconds when a rear wheel stuck during his pitstop.

“Kai was making the moves for us,” he said. “I thought the car was pretty speedy but we just had a hiccup during the pitstop.”

Earlier, Kostecki shrugged off a problem with his engine’s throttle body, which stranded him in the garage for the opening 15 minutes of the sole Practice session, and a bout of flu, to take pole position. But his car lacked the race pace of the other Fords and he had to settle for fourth place at the finish.

Will Brown took fifth for Triple Eight Racing, thereby giving Ford a sweep of the top five places at a track that has previously featured only Chevrolet wins during the Gen3 era.

The best of the rest was De Pasquale, just ahead of the Toyota GR Supra of Walkinshaw TWG’s Chaz Mostert. The defending Supercars Champion just missed making the Qualifying cut to the top 10 session and started 11th, before passing team-mate Ryan Wood on his way to seventh.

Points leader Broc Feeney, the winner of six of the eight previous Gen3 races at the circuit, started from 13th on the grid after a tricky qualifying session. He did his cause no good at all by running off immediately when rejoining after his pitstop and complained of a lack of straightline speed during the race, finishing 14th. As a result, the 90-point lead he brought to the event has been reduced to 59.

The Supercars teams and drivers will return to action on Saturday and Sunday with two 70-lap, 200km races.

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.