{"id":99328,"date":"2025-10-24T21:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T21:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/99328\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T21:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T21:17:08","slug":"matthew-payne-relives-career%e2%80%91defining-bathurst-1000-victory-with-garth-tander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/99328\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Payne relives career\u2011defining Bathurst 1000 victory with Garth Tander"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working really hard this year, and we\u2019ve won some amazing trophies. Winning Bathurst proves to yourself that you\u2019re certainly in this game to be the best.<\/p>\n

\"MattMatt Payne and Garth Tander cross the finish line at Bathurst. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to have that on your CV as well. Obviously, it sets you up for a very long time. I almost feel a bit relieved to get the first one out of the way because … it\u2019s probably the hardest one to try and overcome. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo that was certainly a bit of a relief, and knowing every time I go back there, I\u2019ve already done it once.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the win, I did get a few texts from the Ford guys over there [in America], so that was pretty cool. And they\u2019re always following the racing pretty closely. So, yeah, it\u2019s good to have their support.<\/p>\n

He said Bathurst was \u201cthe absolute pinnacle\u201d for Supercars<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s really the only one you want to win. And to be able to win it at this age [23] is a pretty big privilege, to be honest.\u201d <\/p>\n

Team owner Stephen Grove is over the moon with the win and is going to seal the car in clear coat in the exact condition \u2013 dings, scratches, dirt and other damage \u2013 to keep the character of the winning car intact. It will be a way of keeping Payne and the team\u2019s triumph in a time capsule.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was his [Grove\u2019s] dream to get a result like that, and he\u2019s over the moon and so stoked,\u201d Payne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy for all the guys and girls at Penrite Racing and everyone who\u2019s put in so much hard work.<\/p>\n

\"MattMatt Payne (right) celebrates with co-driver Garth Tander after winning at Bathurst. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was definitely on our list of things to win, and it\u2019s pretty cool to be able to repay Grove Racing for their faith in me with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

By winning the most coveted single-race trophy in the Supercars season<\/a>, Payne has positioned himself nicely for a genuine tilt at the Supercars title, starting at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.<\/p>\n

New for this year is the \u201cFinals\u201d system, in which only the top 10 drivers on points after the Bathurst 1000 are eligible to challenge for the 2025 Supercars title.<\/p>\n

Broc Feeney is currently in the box seat on 3175 points, with Payne second (3145), followed by Will Brown (3096), Cam Waters (3078) and Brody Kostecki (3066). The only other New Zealander to make the cut so far is Ryan Wood (3030) in ninth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just sort of parked what happened at Bathurst and am now focusing on what\u2019s ahead, and that\u2019s racing this weekend,\u201d Payne said. <\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, this round is the most important round we\u2019ve had apart from Bathurst this year, so it\u2019s going to be crucial that we go well here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just going to go out there and try and do what we\u2019ve been doing so far this season and score big points. That\u2019s what\u2019s gotten us to where we are this season. So, I think that\u2019s a pretty good strategy to have. We\u2019ve just got to make sure we can execute on the weekend and not make too many mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys are happy after Bathurst and they\u2019ve sort of lifted to another level now, which is really good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bathurst win didn\u2019t just cement Payne as one of the best of the new young breed of Supercars racers; it elevated his standing with Ford, reinforced his reputation up and down pitlane, boosted his profile back home in New Zealand and pushed his name into global feeds. Careers move in steps; life changes in moments \u2013 Payne found both on a wet Sunday at Mt Panorama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019ve been working really hard this year, and we\u2019ve won some amazing trophies. Winning Bathurst proves to yourself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[20299,74,72825,214,72822,72826,72827,8278,5904,1888,13984,72823,194,3369,9062,111,139,69,42309,62589,72828,72821,213,53883,72824,37137,28557,8982,102,17450],"class_list":["post-99328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-20299","tag-after","tag-atrocious","tag-bathurst","tag-careerdefining","tag-circuits","tag-codriver","tag-conditions","tag-final","tag-first","tag-fortnight","tag-garth","tag-kiwi","tag-matthew","tag-moments","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-panorama","tag-payne","tag-relived","tag-relives","tag-sports","tag-surviving","tag-tander","tag-tense","tag-toughest","tag-victory","tag-with","tag-worlds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99328","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=99328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}