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.”

Broc Feeney, Triple Eight Race Engineering

Broc Feeney, Triple Eight Race Engineering

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics

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

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

1

M. Payne Grove Racing

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

 
 
80

2

R. Wood Walkinshaw TWG Racing

 
Toyota GR Supra
50

3.1782
 
74

3
Australia A. De Pasquale Team 18
 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.6884
 
68

4
Australia C. Waters Tickford Racing
 
Ford Mustang S650
50

1.7254
 
62

5
Australia C. Mostert Walkinshaw TWG Racing
 
Toyota GR Supra
50

1.0344
 
57

6

K. Allen Grove Racing

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.4793
 
53

7

B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.3820
 
54

8
New Zealand A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing
 
Toyota GR Supra
50

0.5461
 
45

9
Australia T. Randle Tickford Racing
 
Ford Mustang S650
50

2.6182
 
41

10

R. Gray Dick Johnson Racing

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.4351
 
38

11
Australia J. Le Brocq Matt Stone Racing
 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

1.8374
 
35

12
Australia W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering
 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.1965
 
32

13

C. Murray Erebus Motorsport Penrite

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.1450
 
29

14

C. Hill Brad Jones Racing

 
Toyota GR Supra
50

0.5204
 
27

15
Australia J. Golding Blanchard Racing Team
 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.2972
 
25

16

A. Cameron Blanchard Racing Team

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.3230
 
23

17

J. Walls Triple Eight Race Engineering

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.5708
 
21

18

J. Stewart Erebus Motorsport Penrite

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.2522
 
19

19
Australia D. Reynolds Team 18
 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

1.1304
 
18

20

J. Ojeda PremiAir Racing

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.0887
 
16

21

D. Fraser PremiAir Racing

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.3974
 
15

22

Z. Bates Matt Stone Racing

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.1631
 
14

23
Australia M. Jones Brad Jones Racing
 
Toyota GR Supra
49

1 Lap
 
13

24

B. Kostecki Dick Johnson Racing

 
Ford Mustang S650
47

2 Laps
 
12

1

B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

 
 
 

2

M. Payne Grove Racing

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

1.5833
 
 

3

K. Allen Grove Racing

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

4.1345
 
 

4
Australia C. Mostert Walkinshaw TWG Racing
 
Toyota GR Supra
50

7.0942
 
 

5
Australia W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering
 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.6593
 
 

6

B. Kostecki Dick Johnson Racing

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.3549
 
 

7
New Zealand A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing
 
Toyota GR Supra
50

4.3979
 
 

8

R. Wood Walkinshaw TWG Racing

 
Toyota GR Supra
50

3.1219
 
 

9
Australia C. Waters Tickford Racing
 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.3157
 
 

10
Australia T. Randle Tickford Racing
 
Ford Mustang S650
50

3.0857
 
 

11
Australia A. De Pasquale Team 18
 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.9316
 
 

12

D. Fraser PremiAir Racing

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

1.7668
 
 

13
Australia J. Le Brocq Matt Stone Racing
 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.2978
 
 

14
Australia J. Golding Blanchard Racing Team
 
Ford Mustang S650
50

1.7818
 
 

15
Australia D. Reynolds Team 18
 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.3688
 
 

16

J. Stewart Erebus Motorsport Penrite

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

2.4106
 
 

17

R. Gray Dick Johnson Racing

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

0.1516
 
 

18

J. Ojeda PremiAir Racing

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

0.5151
 
 

19

C. Murray Erebus Motorsport Penrite

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

6.2029
 
 

20

C. Hill Brad Jones Racing

 
Toyota GR Supra
50

4.2405
 
 

21

A. Cameron Blanchard Racing Team

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

1.1364
 
 

22

Z. Bates Matt Stone Racing

 
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
50

1.5015
 
 

23
Australia M. Jones Brad Jones Racing
 
Toyota GR Supra
50

1.4269
 
 

24

J. Walls Triple Eight Race Engineering

 
Ford Mustang S650
50

1.6166
 
 

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