{"id":386486,"date":"2026-04-18T23:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T23:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386486\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T23:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T23:21:09","slug":"could-kiwi-drivers-shine-on-final-day-of-christchurch-supercars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386486\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Kiwi drivers shine on final day of Christchurch Supercars?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New<\/p>\n

\nNew Zealand driver Matt Payne wins race three of the Christchurch round of the Supercars Championship, 18 April 2026.
\nPhoto: Mark Horsburgh\/EDGE Photographics\n<\/p>\n

Kiwi driver Ryan Wood is in pole position to win the prestigious Jason Richards Memorial Trophy at Sunday’s final day of action of the Christchurch round of the Supercars Championship.<\/p>\n

Wood holds a 33-point margin over Brodie Kostecki in the JR standings, with the trophy awarded to the Supercars driver who scores the most points in the championship’s New Zealand races, which also include the two races held in Taup\u014d last weekend.<\/p>\n

The trophy honours the well-liked Kiwi Supercars driver who succumbed to cancer in 2011.<\/p>\n

While Wood hasn’t won at Ruapuna yet., he has been consistent, finishing third in Friday’s race, before another third placing in the first race on Saturday and a fourth in the second.<\/p>\n

Wood was also on form at Taup\u014d, with a third and first in the two races. He won’t be the only Kiwi driver to watch today though, with Matt Payne also firing.<\/p>\n

Payne won Saturday’s second race and was in the mix to win the earlier race, before pitstop mishap ruined his chances.<\/p>\n

Sunday’s last race goes for 61 laps and begins just after 3pm.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand driver Matt Payne wins race three of the Christchurch round of the Supercars Championship, 18 April…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-386486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}