Ford Mustangs Continue Winning Streak in New Zealand

Ford Mustangs continued their domination of the 2026 Supercars championship on the first weekend of a double-header in New Zealand.

Brodie Kostecki started the first of back-to-back race weekends with a dominant win as Broc Feeney and Will Brown both also managed a podium finish at Taupo in the North Island. There were strong performances throughout the Blue Oval stable, with the rest of the Mustang pack dominating the Top 10 over two races.

A cyclone warning forced championship organisers to condense the program into a single day of racing, moving the planned 200km feature race to Saturday, and cancelling Sunday’s running with the rescheduled 120km stoush completely.

The reduced total of 320km on two different tyre compounds still worked for Kostecki and Feeney, who sit first and second in the championship standings heading to a new challenge next weekend at the Ruapuna circuit in the South Island.

“We’re on a bit of a roll at the moment. We didn’t have that last year. We’ve got to keep our heads down,” said Kostecki, who continues to wear the orange #17 numbers to reflect his title position.

There has been a change in the teams’ standings, with Triple Eight Race Engineering now taking prime position in the pitlane after overtaking Grove Racing.

The 2026 Supercars Championship season continues with the second New Zealand event, the Christchurch Super 440, from April 17-19.

FORD RACE RESULTS

RACE 1
1st – Brodie Kostecki
2nd – Will Brown
4th – Matt Payne
5th – Broc Feeney
6th – James Golding

RACE 2
2nd – Broc Feeney
4th – Will Brown
5th – Matt Payne
6th – Brodie Kostecki
7th – James Golding

RACE 3
Cancelled

FORD DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st – Brodie Kostecki, 657 points
2nd – Broc Feeney, 638
3rd – Matt Payne, 569
4th – Cam Waters, 544
9th – Will Brown, 428
10th – James Golding, 424
11th – Kai Allen, 396
12th – Thomas Randle 346
18th – Aaron Cameron, 241
20th – Rylan Gray, 229
22nd – Jackson Walls, 183

FORD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st – Triple Eight Race Engineering, 1066
3rd – Grove Racing, 935
4th – Tickford Racing, 890
5th – Dick Johnson Racing, 886
7th – Blanchard Racing Team, 665
13th – Objective Racing, 183

TEAM OWNER/TEAM PRINCIPAL QUOTES

MARK DUTTON, Triple Eight Race Engineering

• “One of the goals for the weekend was get the #1 garage back and we achieved that. We work hard to earn it and it’s not just nice to have, it’s a performance thing.
• “It would have helped us in both races today with the pitstops and the Grove cars.
• “Overall, we’re happy. We had a few wounded soldiers with a bug going around, but everyone pushed on.
• “The Ford is strong, even though we’re still learning the right knobs to turn to extract speed. Will Brown’s car was good out of the box and, although Broc Feeney’s was a bit of a handful at first, in the second race they were both super-strong.”

TIM BLANCHARD, Blanchard Racing Team

• “We were quite nervous coming to Taupo because it’s been a tough round for us in the past. So to have both cars in the front half of the field, and Jimmy Golding in the Top 10, is very pleasing.
• “It’s so much better than last year. We’ve had a really good start to the season.
• “You always want more, but it’s been a very good day for the team. It proves that we have made a serious move forward.”

MARK FENNING, Dick Johnson Racing

• “It’s been another positive event, with Brodie Kostecki taking pole position and a dominant win in the first race of the weekend, backing up with a solid sixth in the 200km race.
• “Car #17 continues to bank good early-season points and leads the championship.
• “We will continue to work hard with Rylan Gray on the Car #38 side of the garage, with the key focus being qualifying pace.”

STEPHEN GROVE, Grove Racing

• “We came off the Grand Prix meeting with good car pace, but this time we didn’t get the cars quite right. Just lacking a little bit of speed.
• “But you’re not going to get it right every time at every track, and it’s tough at Taupo with so many different surfaces around the lap.
• “The pistops were good, the team worked well, and now we re-set and do it again next weekend in the South Island. It’s a new track for everyone so it will be an even playing field and we’ll see how it goes.”

ROD NASH, Tickford Racing

• “The weekend was not as strong as we would have liked. Qualifying was where we let ourselves down and we couldn’t get the rear grip into the cars.
• “Now we have a week to think about it and we’ll be focussed on qualifying at Ruapuna. Adding the extra race that was cancelled at Taupo means you can really get your mojo happening if you get it right.
• “Sometimes it’s really good to have a busy race meeting. For everyone it will be fast and furious, and the fans in Christchurch will get an extra bonus.”

ANDREW JONES, Objective Racing

• “We had a bit of sunshine on a stormy weekend. The results were decent, we qualified 14th for the first race and then showed massive amounts of potential. Unfortunately, contact with Cameron Hill put paid to any solid result.
• “We didn’t maximise the Soft tyre with Jackson Walls and started a long way back. But he made some solid passes before we had a suspension failure.
• “We’re in a learning phase and we want to end up at the front of the field, so the trajectory says we’re heading forward.”