WILL Brown has shared praise for Matt Payne’s ability to continue challenging at the front of the Supercars field despite the rampant speculation surrounding his future.
It was more than six months ago that Payne was first linked to a future deal with General Motors and its spearhead squad Team 18, and the narrative has rarely taken a backseat since then.
The Kiwi himself did little to downplay rumours upon appearing on MotorRacing 360 in April: “I can’t really shed too much light on it at the moment.”
Then came the saga whereby Payne’s camp requested to race a Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series at Sonoma – something which was rejected by his Ford-aligned Grove Racing team.
Payne last week affirmed his intentions to see out the final year of his Grove deal (i.e. 2027), albeit with some less than definitive wording.
Through it all, Payne – whose manager Michael Patrizi was on the ground in Darwin – has been piecing together an excellent season that sees him now just 15 points shy of the championship lead held by Broc Feeney.
Brown knows all about the difficulty of maintaining on-track form against the backdrop of off-track conjecture, having been right in the 2023 title fight until slumping after it became evident he would quit Erebus Motorsport for Triple Eight.
“I’m impressed with how good of a job he is doing with all the noise behind the scenes,” Brown said of Payne via the Lucky Dogs Podcast.
“Like I know we act like it doesn’t affect us and you go ‘it wouldn’t bother me even if this was all going on’ but you’re working with crew members that if they think you’re trying to leave the team or anything like that, they probably get a little bit upset about it which is completely fair.
“I remember that with Erebus.
“So kudos to Matt, because god he is performing.”
Payne’s results in the past eight races read: first, first, eighth, third, second, third, fourth, second.
The general consensus is that he will most likely join Team 18 for 2028.