Matt Payne streaked clear in his Kelly Racing Ford Mustang to dominate the second Supercars race at Townsville in an otherwise exciting contest on Saturday.
Payne started the 68-lap race from second and, after the first pit cycle played out, found himself 11 seconds clear of any of the challengers.
His lead was beyond 10 seconds for all of the second half of the race, so large that at one stage, he discussed with his engineer their tyre strategy for Sunday’s 200km outing.
Payne’s cause was assisted significantly when Brodie Kostecki’s crew had a problem getting his left-rear wheel changed at his first pit stop and by the time he regained the track, he had lost four places.
The Dick Johnson Racing Mustang was quick but did not quite have the race pace of Payne and 2023 champion Kostecki was rewarded with a podium finish in third place.
“It did get a bit lonely,” said Payne. “We like to be in control and have the race from our end. A front row, not a pole but I am really proud of everyone. I didn’t get a great start but the team did an excellent job and I saved a bit of fuel, which helped with track position.”
Between the Fords, a second place trophy was quite a reward for Anton De Pasquale. After qualifying seeded the top 10 cars into the one-lap Shout Out, no Chevrolet Camaros managed to make the grade.
Matt Payne
Photo by: Getty Images
De Pasquale was the best of breed in 11th and looked to be a chance at getting, maybe, a top six finish. But the Team 18 car sliced its way through the top 10 to second mid-race, and when he dropped two places in the second pit cycle, De Pasquale simply set his aim on the cars ahead and did it again.
“It’s great, the car was a lot better then, we had a big swing at it,” he said. “We had a fresher tyre [than the drivers around him], and I could use it. I was saving fuel for a long time but we had enough margin to Brodie to get it home.”
After a fraught race and the time he lost in the pit lane, Kostecki had to be satisfied with third. “Unfortunate, but it’s a long year and the car was plenty fast in the race,” he said.
“The first thing I saw was the fuel [churn] was out, and I wanted to see the fuel [a second churn] go back in. We’ll sort that out tonight. That’s motor racing, sometimes.”
He also thought that his delay might have inadvertently aided De Pasquale’s strategy.
“I probably caused that mess, we reacted to Matty [Payne] and I was out on older tyres than the guys racing behind me, and that helped Anton,” he said.
Behind the top three came the two Tickford Fords. Thomas Randle continued his good form to match team-mate Cam Waters, before letting him by into fourth with four laps to run.
Waters did not quite have the speed he showed in winning Friday’s race, and his cause was not helped when his Tickford Mustang had its exhaust pipe pinched mid-race, costing him some power.
Triple Eight’s Will Brown and Broc Feeney again had to start from outside the top 10. Brown stepped out of his car after a single qualifying run, but missed making the Shoot Out by 0.07s, while Feeney was again simply lacking single lap speed and started from 18th.
But Brown repeated his fine Friday overtaking form, ending the race right behind Randle, with Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw TWG Toyota Supra) and Feeney close behind.
With his 10th career win Payne has stretched his championship points lead, going into Sunday’s race.
| 1 |
Grove Racing |
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
|
120 | |||
| 2 |
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 68 |
15.2885 |
110 | |||
| 3 |
Dick Johnson Racing |
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
0.7398 |
102 | |||
| 4 |
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
3.9924 |
93 | |||
| 5 |
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
0.8871 |
86 | |||
| 6 |
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
0.7891 |
79 | |||
| 7 |
|
Toyota GR Supra | 68 |
2.4303 |
73 | |||
| 8 |
Triple Eight Race Engineering |
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
2.8297 |
67 | |||
| 9 |
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 68 |
0.7338 |
67 | |||
| 10 |
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 68 |
5.3219 |
57 | |||
| 11 |
PremiAir Racing |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 68 |
2.2137 |
52 | |||
| 12 |
Grove Racing |
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
3.4341 |
48 | |||
| 13 |
Erebus Motorsport Penrite |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 68 |
1.0114 |
44 | |||
| 14 |
Matt Stone Racing |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 68 |
4.2433 |
41 | |||
| 15 |
Blanchard Racing Team |
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
4.1103 |
37 | |||
| 16 |
|
Toyota GR Supra | 68 |
6.2532 |
34 | |||
| 17 |
Dick Johnson Racing |
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
6.8210 |
32 | |||
| 18 |
Triple Eight Race Engineering |
Ford Mustang S650 | 68 |
5.5013 |
29 | |||
| 19 |
|
Toyota GR Supra | 68 |
0.4697 |
27 | |||
| 20 |
Erebus Motorsport Penrite |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 68 |
6.4314 |
25 | |||
| 21 |
PremiAir Racing |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 67 |
1 Lap |
23 | |||
| 22 |
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 67 |
19.5627 |
21 | |||
| 23 |
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 67 |
19.7471 |
19 | |||
| 24 |
Tickford Racing |
Ford Mustang S650 | 67 |
27.9877 |
18 | |||
| 25 |
Brad Jones Racing |
Toyota GR Supra | 66 |
1 Lap |
16 | |||
| 26 |
Walkinshaw TWG Racing |
Toyota GR Supra | 60 |
6 Laps |
15 |
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– The Autosport.com Team
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