Mark Winterbottom has won his first Supercars race since 2016, ending a 197-race winless drought.
 
In what was an action-packed race at Darwin’s Hidden Valley, Winterbottom crossed the line first full of emotion, and tears, after claiming his first win for more than 2400 days and his first as a driver for Team 18.
 
Starting from third on the grid, Winterbottom made the most of his chances to lead the pack for the majority of the race.
 
While Cameron Waters started on pole and led the field into turn one, a significant fire took hold of the Ford Mustang shortly after, forcing Waters to stop by the side of the track and extinguish the fire with the help of Motorsport Australia volunteer officials. Thankfully, Waters escaped completely unharmed, but his car suffered significant damage with investigations ongoing into what caused the fire.
 
That fire resulted in the deployment of the Safety Car and a flurry of pit lane action, resulting in a shuffling of the order.


As the field settled behind the Safety Car, Winterbottom led the way on the restart and didn’t look back.
 
“I told (team owner) Charlie (Schwerkolt) when I joined that we'd win, and far out it's taken a while. It was really hard work,” Winterbottom told Fox Sports.
 
“For Charlie, this is a big one for him.”
 
Behind the 2015 Supercars champion, Broc Feeney finished the race in second, less than a second behind Winterbottom. Will Davison rounded out the podium in third – his first for the year.
 
The Repco Supercars Championship will conclude its outing in the sunny and warm top end with two more races on Sunday, with the event broadcast live on both Seven and Fox Sports.