Anton De Pasquale has taken his first win of the 2026 Supercars after a peerless drive under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The Team 18 Chevrolet driver remained unfazed by a chaotic restart, some threatening weather and a horde of Fords to score a strong win for GM. Behind the Camaro were three Fords before the next Chevrolet, the sister entry of David Reynolds.
De Pasquale started from pole position, his ninth at the track – one short of the Supercars record for the venue, held by Scott McLaughlin. He took the early lead from Brodie Kostecki but when a safety car was summoned on lap nine after Andre Heimgartner’sGR Supra had an engine failure and everyone pitted.
De Pasquale emerged in the lead but the Dick Johnson Racing Ford of Brodie Kostecki dropped two places, one of which he got back by passing the Blanchard Racing Ford of Aaron Cameron at the restart.
“We have been building for it, I had an amazing car,” said De Pasquale after ending a 70-race winning drought. “I was under pressure at the end. He was fast, I knew he was going to be quick. I looked after the car, it looked after its tyres really well tonight.”
Second was a great result for Kostecki, as he ran long in his second stint and took full advantage of his fresher tyres to grab the runner-up spot off Matt Payne in the Grove Racing Ford Mustang with six laps to run. The 2023 champion charged all the way to the line but fell 0.3627s from the win at the flag.
Broc Feeney, Triple Eight Race Engineering
Photo by: Edge Photographics
Payne hung for third place ahead of another Ford, with Cam Waters showing some signs of his 2025 speed at the track, even if he was 18s back from the winner. He took the place off Reynolds, the veteran starting 11th but just as he did on Friday, showing strong late-race speed.
Sixth was a deserved reward for Broc Feeney on a tough evening for Triple Eight Racing. After qualifying sixth the Friday race winner dropped to ninth in the qualifying top 10 shoot out and emerged from the first pit cycle in seventh. But in leaving his pitbox he made contact with James Golding to pick up a 15s penalty.
Will Brown picked up the same penalty for a separate pitlane infringement for spinning his wheels while it was up on its jacks. Both drivers served the penalties at their second stops, Feeney’s charge taking him all the way to sixth place, while Brown finished 15th.
Seventh was a solid result for the first of the Toyotas. Ryan Wood put the Walkinshaw TWG GR Supra into a qualifying top 10 session for the first time but ran out of speed in the closing laps, but finished ahead of the second Grove Ford of Kai Allen.
Jack Le Brocq was an impressive ninth after starting from 24th and last but the Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet was a much better race car than in qualifying, with an early first stop setting up a strong charge through the field.
Supercars will return to the track on Sunday for qualifying and the third race of the weekend.
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- The Autosport.com Team
Source: Autosport