Supercars Perth: Matt Payne builds championship lead with near-perfect day

Matt Payne has extended his lead in the Supercars championship with a win and a second place in the two races at Wanneroo Raceway in Perth.

The Grove Racing Ford driver started from pole position in both 50-lap races and except for a slow start to the opening race, the New Zealander made no mistakes worth mentioning, to take the win.

Even a safety car in race one, which erased a lead of nearly five seconds, did not worry Payne, who quickly re-established his advantage.

In the second race he solved his temporary starting woes but following his pitstop was baulked by a car that was about to enter the pitlane.

In a flash Broc Feeney, who had been closing in on the leader after his own stop, bolted into the lead in the Triple Eight Ford, and hung on to end a seven-race winless streak by 1.58s.

“It’s probably more of a relief, to be honest,” said Feeney, who finished seventh in the opening race, after a difficult qualifying.

“We still have a fair bit of work to do. In the first stint Matt disappeared into the distance but he came back to me in the second stint. I lit into wheelspin [at the start] and I had a bit of an issue in the first stint. My guys are second to none in the pitlane and they put me back into it.”

Payne had no qualms about Feeney’s opportunistic overtake.

“I would have done the same thing,” he said. “We just got caught out with lapped traffic at absolutely the wrong time. I don’t think there is anything I would have done.

“I was just understeering too much. I was getting frustrated, to lose it like that was unfortunate.”

Third place in the second race went to Payne’s Grove team-mate, Kai Allen. He was involved in a major battle in the opening race when, under pressure from the Team 18 Chevrolet of Anton De Pasquale, Allen was attacking Kostecki at Turn 1 and the result was Kostecki beached, which triggered the safety car with 11 laps remaining. That left the 2023 champion last and Allen sixth, with the stewards opting for no further action after investigation in the clash post-race.

“I had a bad start and Broc had a shocker too,” Allen said after Race 2.

“For a while there… I was really happy after that. The car was a good one. We are missing a bit, Broc did a good job and that team did a really good job with their stops.”

In the second race Kostecki had to come through the field and over the closing laps fought an epic battle with his former team-mate, Will Brown. The Triple Eight Ford driver started from 11th to Kostecki’s seventh but made strong early ground, and completed a solid day for Triple Eight.

Brodie Kostecki, Dick Johnson Racing

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics

It was a good Saturday for the Walkinshaw TWG Toyotas. Ryan Wood was second in the first race, even if Payne had the speed to have him covered, but he did not have the same speed in the second race, finishing eighth.

Team-mate Chaz Mostert had two solid races, and looked to be in contention for a podium finish in the opening race, in spite of starting outside the top 10. His Toyota showed good race pace and the team’s decision to change only two tyres in the single pitstop got him up to third, until he lost ground to ‘four-tyre’ cars in the closing laps. In the second race he made an early stop and thereafter, drove a lonely race to fourth.

The other notable performances came from De Pasquale, who was the best Chevrolet driver in both races, taking third in race one and 11th in the second race. De Pasquale had great pace in the second half of the opening race on Dunlop’s soft tyre but on the super soft in the afternoon could not repeat the performance.

The Supercars teams and drivers have one more race in Perth on Sunday afternoon.

Supercars Perth – Race results

RACE1

All Stats

1	M. Payne Grove Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	50’52.2735			80
2	R. Wood Walkinshaw TWG Racing		Toyota GR Supra	50	+3.1782 50’55.4517	3.1782		74
3	A. De Pasquale Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+3.8666 50’56.1401	0.6884		68
4	C. Waters Tickford Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+5.5920 50’57.8655	1.7254		62
5	C. Mostert Walkinshaw TWG Racing		Toyota GR Supra	50	+6.6264 50’58.8999	1.0344		57
6	K. Allen Grove Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+7.1057 50’59.3792	0.4793		53
7	B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering		Ford Mustang S650	50	+7.4877 50’59.7612	0.3820		54
8	A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing		Toyota GR Supra	50	+8.0338 51’00.3073	0.5461		45
9	T. Randle Tickford Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+10.6520 51’02.9255	2.6182		41
10	R. Gray Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+11.0871 51’03.3606	0.4351		38
11	J. Le Brocq Matt Stone Racing		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+12.9245 51’05.1980	1.8374		35
12	W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering		Ford Mustang S650	50	+13.1210 51’05.3945	0.1965		32
13	C. Murray Erebus Motorsport Penrite		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+13.2660 51’05.5395	0.1450		29
14	C. Hill Brad Jones Racing		Toyota GR Supra	50	+13.7864 51’06.0599	0.5204		27
15	J. Golding Blanchard Racing Team		Ford Mustang S650	50	+14.0836 51’06.3571	0.2972		25
16	A. Cameron Blanchard Racing Team		Ford Mustang S650	50	+14.4066 51’06.6801	0.3230		23
17	J. Walls Triple Eight Race Engineering		Ford Mustang S650	50	+14.9774 51’07.2509	0.5708		21
18	J. Stewart Erebus Motorsport Penrite		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+15.2296 51’07.5031	0.2522		19
19	D. Reynolds Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+16.3600 51’08.6335	1.1304		18
20	J. Ojeda PremiAir Racing		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+16.4487 51’08.7222	0.0887		16
21	D. Fraser PremiAir Racing		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+16.8461 51’09.1196	0.3974		15
22	Z. Bates Matt Stone Racing		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+17.0092 51’09.2827	0.1631		14
23	M. Jones Brad Jones Racing		Toyota GR Supra	49	+1 Lap 51’11.1001	1 Lap		13
24	B. Kostecki Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang S650	47	+3 Laps 51’14.8682	2 Laps		12

RACE2

All Stats

1	B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering		Ford Mustang S650	50	46’58.8626
2	M. Payne Grove Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+1.5833 47’00.4459	1.5833
3	K. Allen Grove Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+5.7178 47’04.5804	4.1345
4	C. Mostert Walkinshaw TWG Racing		Toyota GR Supra	50	+12.8120 47’11.6746	7.0942
5	W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering		Ford Mustang S650	50	+13.4713 47’12.3339	0.6593
6	B. Kostecki Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+13.8262 47’12.6888	0.3549
7	A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing		Toyota GR Supra	50	+18.2241 47’17.0867	4.3979
8	R. Wood Walkinshaw TWG Racing		Toyota GR Supra	50	+21.3460 47’20.2086	3.1219
9	C. Waters Tickford Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+21.6617 47’20.5243	0.3157
10	T. Randle Tickford Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+24.7474 47’23.6100	3.0857
11	A. De Pasquale Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+25.6790 47’24.5416	0.9316
12	D. Fraser PremiAir Racing		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+27.4458 47’26.3084	1.7668
13	J. Le Brocq Matt Stone Racing		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+27.7436 47’26.6062	0.2978
14	J. Golding Blanchard Racing Team		Ford Mustang S650	50	+29.5254 47’28.3880	1.7818
15	D. Reynolds Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+29.8942 47’28.7568	0.3688
16	J. Stewart Erebus Motorsport Penrite		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+32.3048 47’31.1674	2.4106
17	R. Gray Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang S650	50	+32.4564 47’31.3190	0.1516
18	J. Ojeda PremiAir Racing		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+32.9715 47’31.8341	0.5151
19	C. Murray Erebus Motorsport Penrite		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+39.1744 47’38.0370	6.2029
20	C. Hill Brad Jones Racing		Toyota GR Supra	50	+43.4149 47’42.2775	4.2405
21	A. Cameron Blanchard Racing Team		Ford Mustang S650	50	+44.5513 47’43.4139	1.1364
22	Z. Bates Matt Stone Racing		Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6	50	+46.0528 47’44.9154	1.5015
23	M. Jones Brad Jones Racing		Toyota GR Supra	50	+47.4797 47’46.3423	1.4269
24	J. Walls Triple Eight Race Engineering		Ford Mustang S650	50	+49.0963 47’47.9589	1.6166

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