Top teams feeling pinch of pit stop errors

There’s work to be done down at Penrite Racing, Tickford Racing and Dick Johnson Racing despite reaching victory lane in Townsville.

The three Ford teams shared the wins at the NTI Townsville 500, with Cam Waters, Matt Payne and Brodie Kostecki all delivering victories. However, each team stumbled in pit lane across the weekend.

Notably, Kostecki lost the lead over a slow stop — due to a cross-threaded wheel nut — in the second race. In the finale, Cam Waters took on an unscheduled short fill on his second stop, forcing him to fuel save and denying him a shot at Payne.

Kai Allen, meanwhile, was forced to go back up on the jacks with a left front wheel that wasn't properly fastened, dropping him out of podium contention.

DJR Team Manager Tom Moore was happy to end the weekend on top, and insisted his team is putting support networks in place to learn from their mistakes.

“It was a pretty good indication that when we do execute as a team like we should, they’re the results that we're going to achieve,” Moore said.

“[Saturday] stung obviously, and today feels like what yesterday should’ve looked like… it’s a really good atmosphere around the team at the moment.

“We’re trying to build an atmosphere and culture that supports those issues, and we overcome them as a group, and we get around each other and bounce back.

“Hopefully come November, it shines through.”

Payne was also caught out by botched stops in Christchurch and Darwin, likely missing out on victory in both races. Penrite Racing CEO Brenton Grove said the errors weren’t a secret to the team, instead labelling them as “growing pains."

“We’re on a journey, it’s nice to be leading the two championships,” Grove said.

“We saw today we didn’t quite execute again, and it’s probably something that is costing us a little bit at the moment. When we get everything right, we get a result like we did yesterday, and if we don’t, the competition is so strong that you’re not going to win the race.

“It’s a good place to be in, but we’re certainly not happy with how we performed this weekend. We’ve got some work to do, to try and fix some errors that we’re making.”

When asked to expand on the issues, Grove added: “Matt was the second fastest car in the lane today, and Kai was probably one of the last. We have it in us, but we’re not doing it well enough and often enough, and it’s costing us results.

“The higher up the grid you get, the more you’re on show, and some of the mistakes we’re making are more public than they would’ve been.”

Waters was left to rue his fuel save hurdle, and while he was pleased to have fast cars, Tickford CEO Simon Brookhouse admitted his crew also has work to do to.

“We’re still making little errors that we’ve got to get on top of,” Brookhouse said.

“It is a long season, and as far as we’re concerned, we’re continuing to improve, but we’ve got a lot more improvement in us.”

As was the case in 2025, fuel churns will be replaced by fuel towers for the final five rounds of the season after Ipswich, comprising the Ryco Enduro Cup at The Bend and Bathurst, as well as the Repco Supercars Finals Series across the Gold Coast, Sandown, and Adelaide.

Payne, Kostecki and Waters are joined by Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney in the top four heading to Perth on July 31-August 2.