New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nNamed in honour of the Kiwi racing icon who lost his life in 2011, the trophy is one of the sport\u2019s most sought-after pieces of in-season silverware, particularly for those competing under the New Zealand flag.<\/p>\n
For Payne it was a dream come true \u2014 or just about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably only have one regret,\u201d he tells Fox Sports. \u201cThat I didn\u2019t do a bigger burnout.<\/p>\n
\u201cAchieving that was certainly the highlight I\u2019ve had so far in motorsport. That was a big piece of memorabilia I really wanted to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d seen so many of my heroes do it over the past few years, and seeing them hold the trophy is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne is the third Kiwi to win the trophy since its 2013 inception and the first since Shane van Gisbergen in 2022.<\/p>\n
No driver has claimed the trophy in back-to-back seasons, though Van Gisbergen won the prize on either side of New Zealand\u2019s pandemic absence from the calendar, in 2019 and 2022.<\/p>\n
To be the first to do so looms as an enticing prospect for Payne, but in 2026 the challenge will be different, with the trophy to be contested over two rounds \u2014 in Taup\u014d and Christchurch \u2014 for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would definitely be one of the highlights of my career, along with Bathurst,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly over the two rounds this year it\u2019s going to be tough \u2014 combined points, so you\u2019re going to have to be quick at both tracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really cool \u2014 a really good initiative from Supercars to create the double-header program.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo back-to-back weekends of racing in my home country \u2014 I would never ever say no to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did like it with the one round In Taup\u014d \u2014 it felt really special to just have the one opportunity to race in front of your home crowd and do them proud \u2014 but it\u2019s going to be even better getting to showcase our sport to the South Island fans that potentially couldn\u2019t have travelled up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were we were really quick at Taup\u014d, so going to a brand-new track for everyone is going to be difficult, but fingers crossed we can do well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denyer hospitalised after ugly crash | 00:28<\/p>\n
Regardless of whether Payne or another home hero claims the silverware, the weekend is guaranteed to be a festival of New Zealand motorsport culture, with both islands now represented on the Supercars calendar.<\/p>\n
It could also bring out some new Kiwi competitiveness between host venues as each vies to be the country\u2019s premier Supercars round \u2014 this in a nation that already punches well above its weight in the motor racing landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe past two events [in Taup\u014d] have been amazing, and then the facilities are only getting better as well, so that\u2019s quite a tough one to beat,\u201d Payne says.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s going to be cool seeing how Ruapuna develops over the next few years and seeing the kind of investment they\u2019re putting into it to upgrade that track and upgrade the facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as well the fan base is a little bit different down there. Those people are really invested in their rugby and their sport down on the South Island. I know there\u2019s a very strong community of car people down there, so for those who potentially can\u2019t make it to Taup\u014d can enjoy their own piece of Supercars in their backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New Zealand double-header gets underway with Taup\u014d as the first stop, ensuring Payne will start the Kiwi leg with some happy memories.<\/p>\n
Triumph in the battle for the JR Memorial Trophy put the Aucklander into the championship top three for the first time last season, the precursor to a championship run that would end at the penultimate round of the campaign, where a contentious clash with Cam Waters put him out of contention under the first running of the Supercars finals format. Without the controversial knockout program, Payne would have finished a close second in the standings.<\/p>\n
The year also featured his breakthrough Bathurst 1000 victory alongside Garth Tander, which was also his Grove team\u2019s first triumph at the mountain.<\/p>\n
He therefore started 2026 with some momentum. He completed the opening round in Sydney tied for the points lead with Broc Feeney and took top spot outright over the next two races in Melbourne, but a disastrous final two rounds of the weekend \u2014 a contentious DNF-inducing crash with James Golding and then a puncture that kicked him from third to 20th \u2014 dropped him to fourth in the standings.<\/p>\n
Bearman Japan crash sparks heated debate | 08:19<\/p>\n
But despite his 73-point deficit to new leader Brodie Kostecki, the signs of yet another step from the ambitious Grove team and its Kiwi spearhead are clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we saw consistency was a massive improvement for us, but along with that, you need to have good car speed, and I think we probably just faltered a couple of times when it came to quali pace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our race pace was always pretty strong, but we were just missing the mark to some of the front teams. It might have been one or two tenths, but it wasn\u2019t much.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe raw pace I think we need to work on a little bit to try and find that \u2026 consistency is obviously the first thing you need to get, and then to help improve that speed I think is the next step for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year Grove was on average 0.454 seconds off the pace in qualifying. This season that margin has shrunk to just 0.226 seconds, putting it only fractionally behind Triple Eight and surprise early pace leader Blanchard Racing Team.<\/p>\n
Payne is the season\u2019s best qualifier, with an average qualifying result of 4.1 over seven weekends. Were it not for his Sunday puncture in Melbourne, he\u2019d have finished just once off the podium \u2014 and that singular outlier would have been a fourth place.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s trip to New Zealand was the highlight of Payne\u2019s career. If he continues on his trajectory, this year it might be the start of something significant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Payne was completing the final lap of the final race of the 2025 Taup\u014d 440, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[1724,64,63,689,84236,91423,283364,2497,289496,166725,289500,289502,289501,9239,38334,36333,16236,241808,13213,101816,121112,29973,194151,289497,28217,941,101818,647,806,289498,805,289494,803,804,673,1736,677,33064,289492,289495,73239,701,21749,289499,164214,9909,289493,85,100051,153472,670,660,284240],"class_list":{"0":"post-592939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","12":"tag-average-qualifying-result","13":"tag-blanchard-racing-team","14":"tag-brendan-radke","15":"tag-brodie-kostecki","16":"tag-car-people","17":"tag-car-speed","18":"tag-championship-run","19":"tag-controversial-knockout-program","20":"tag-double-header-program","21":"tag-eastern-asia","22":"tag-fan-base","23":"tag-final-lap","24":"tag-final-race","25":"tag-finals-format","26":"tag-finals-series","27":"tag-garth-tander","28":"tag-grant-denyer","29":"tag-home-country","30":"tag-home-hero","31":"tag-in-season-silverware","32":"tag-james-golding","33":"tag-japan","34":"tag-matt-payne","35":"tag-melbourne","36":"tag-motor","37":"tag-motor-racing-landscape","38":"tag-motor-sports","39":"tag-motorsport-culture","40":"tag-motosport","41":"tag-motosports","42":"tag-new-south-wales","43":"tag-new-zealand","44":"tag-oceania","45":"tag-opening-round","46":"tag-pace-leader","47":"tag-pandemic-absence","48":"tag-penultimate-round","49":"tag-queensland","50":"tag-race-pace","51":"tag-racing-icon","52":"tag-raw-pace","53":"tag-shane-van-gisbergen","54":"tag-singular-outlier","55":"tag-sports","56":"tag-street-circuit","57":"tag-surfers-paradise","58":"tag-sydney","59":"tag-victoria","60":"tag-wildcard-spot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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