Matt Payne streaked clear in his Grove Racing Ford Mustang to dominate the second Supercars race at Townsville in an in any other case thrilling contest on Saturday.
Payne began the 68-lap race from second and, after the primary pit cycle performed out, discovered himself 11 seconds away from any of the challengers.
His lead was past 10 seconds for all the second half of the race, so massive that at one stage, he mentioned together with his engineer their tyre technique for Sunday’s 200km outing.
Payne’s trigger was assisted considerably when Brodie Kostecki’s crew had an issue getting his left-rear wheel modified at his first pit cease and by the point he regained the observe, he had misplaced 4 locations.
The Dick Johnson Racing Mustang was fast however didn’t fairly have the race tempo of Payne and 2023 champion Kostecki was rewarded with a podium end in third place.
“It did get a bit lonely,” mentioned Payne. “We prefer to be in management and have the race from our finish. A entrance row, not a pole however I’m actually happy with everybody. I didn’t get a terrific begin however the crew did a superb job and I saved a little bit of gas, which helped with observe place.”
Between the Fords, a second place trophy was fairly a reward for Anton De Pasquale. After qualifying seeded the highest 10 automobiles into the one-lap Shout Out, no Chevrolet Camaros managed to make the grade.
Matt Payne
Photograph by: Getty Photos
De Pasquale was the very best of breed in eleventh and appeared to be an opportunity at getting, possibly, a high six end. However the Workforce 18 automotive sliced its means via the highest 10 to second mid-race, and when he dropped two locations within the second pit cycle, De Pasquale merely set his purpose on the automobiles forward and did it once more.
“It’s nice, the automotive was quite a bit higher then, we had an enormous swing at it,” he mentioned. “We had a brisker tyre [than the drivers around him], and I might use it. I used to be saving gas for a very long time however we had sufficient margin to Brodie to get it residence.”
After a fraught race and the time he misplaced within the pit lane, Kostecki needed to be happy with third. “Unlucky, but it surely’s a protracted 12 months and the automotive was lots quick within the race,” he mentioned.
“The very first thing I noticed was the gas [churn] was out, and I needed to see the gas [a second churn] return in. We’ll type that out tonight. That’s motor racing, typically.”
He additionally thought that his delay might need inadvertently aided De Pasquale’s technique.
“I most likely brought about that mess, we reacted to Matty [Payne] and I used to be out on older tyres than the fellows racing behind me, and that helped Anton,” he mentioned.
Behind the highest three got here the 2 Tickford Fords. Thomas Randle continued his good kind to match team-mate Cam Waters, earlier than letting him by into fourth with 4 laps to run.
Waters didn’t fairly have the velocity he confirmed in profitable Friday’s race, and his trigger was not helped when his Tickford Mustang had its exhaust pipe pinched mid-race, costing him some energy.
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Triple Eight’s Will Brown and Broc Feeney once more needed to begin from exterior the highest 10. Brown stepped out of his automotive after a single qualifying run, however missed making the Shoot Out by 0.07s, whereas Feeney was once more merely missing single lap velocity and began from 18th.
However Brown repeated his tremendous Friday overtaking kind, ending the race proper behind Randle, with Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw TWG Toyota Supra) and Feeney shut behind.
Together with his tenth profession win Payne has stretched his championship factors lead, going into Sunday’s race.
1
M. Payne Grove Racing
Ford Mustang S650
68
120
2
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
68
15.2885
110
3
B. Kostecki Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang S650
68
0.7398
102
4
Ford Mustang S650
68
3.9924
93
5
Ford Mustang S650
68
0.8871
86
6
Ford Mustang S650
68
0.7891
79
7
Toyota GR Supra
68
2.4303
73
8
B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang S650
68
2.8297
67
9
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
68
0.7338
67
10
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
68
5.3219
57
11
J. Ojeda PremiAir Racing
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
68
2.2137
52
12
Okay. Allen Grove Racing
Ford Mustang S650
68
3.4341
48
13
C. Murray Erebus Motorsport Penrite
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
68
1.0114
44
14
Z. Bates Matt Stone Racing
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
68
4.2433
41
15
A. Cameron Blanchard Racing Workforce
Ford Mustang S650
68
4.1103
37
16
Toyota GR Supra
68
6.2532
34
17
R. Grey Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang S650
68
6.8210
32
18
J. Partitions Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang S650
68
5.5013
29
19
Toyota GR Supra
68
0.4697
27
20
J. Stewart Erebus Motorsport Penrite
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
68
6.4314
25
21
D. Fraser PremiAir Racing
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
67
1 Lap
23
22
Ford Mustang S650
67
19.5627
21
23
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6
67
19.7471
19
24
R. Goodall Tickford Racing
Ford Mustang S650
67
27.9877
18
25
C. Hill Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra
66
1 Lap
16
26
R. Wooden Walkinshaw TWG Racing
Toyota GR Supra
60
6 Laps
15
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