Motorsport: NZ Supercars driver Matthew Payne hoping for Plains sailing in Tasmania

Matthew Payne sits fifth in the Supercars championship. Photo / Photosport

New Zealand Supercars driver Matthew Payne is on a roll.

Fourth, first, second and fourth-place finishes in his past four races have lifted him to fifth in the championship.

Will Brown leads on 1746 points, with Payne on 1323. And with 300 points up for grabs in Tasmania this weekend, Payne is in a good spot to narrow the gap to Cam Waters (1360), Broc Feeney (1593) and Chaz Mostert (1641).

“This year has been okay and we had a really good start,” Payne told Newstalk ZB. “The Grand Prix was promising, with a couple of podiums and a pole.

“I didn’t get as much as I wanted out of New Zealand and kind of struggled a little midway through the year with the car.

“Things are picking up now and definitely getting back to the direction we want. Hopefully we can finish the year strong and not have too many bogie tracks to go to.”

Payne completed an impressive rookie year in 2023, finishing 14th overall and picking up his maiden win. Although he was successful in Super2 during 2022, the step up to the main game is quite high.

The 21-year-old showed he could keep up with the main players in his rookie year and took that confidence boost into this season.

“Last year, I looked at it as a learning year, gathering as much knowledge as I could and ticking all the boxes.

“This year has improved after a bit of a dip, and Townsville was great to get that win [six weeks ago], which we really needed at the time.

“Having a recent good run is really important for our confidence for the rest of the year. And I just want to win races.”

Qualifying remains an issue at times and is something Payne and his Penrite Racing team are working to improve. The field is so tight that a second can cover 15 to 20 cars during qualifying.

Even if a driver qualifies well, the car set-up for races is slightly different, which brings its own challenges.

“We had a good qualifying car early in the season and it was not a stretch for us to be inside the top five most of the time when it came to qualifying,” Payne said.

“The race set-up requires a different balance to the car and was something we probably didn’t understand at the beginning of the year and we were a little bit lost.

“You see results slip away after qualifying on the front row, and there’s not a lot of reward for qualifying well, as the car wasn’t quite in the window that was needed.

“It’s weird now, as the qualifying car isn’t as good and we’re barely making the top 10, but the race car has definitely improved.”

Symmons Plains is a tricky little track and has that old-school feel about it. This is the last of the sprint rounds for 2024 and it’s going to be cold in Launceston, so getting heat into the tyres is paramount. And there’s the hairpin where many a driver and team have come unstuck.

“It’s not one of my favourite tracks on the calendar. If you think about it, it’s only got about three corners. It’s tough and difficult to get the right set-up to get the most out of the car. I probably prefer the longer tracks like The Bend or Bathurst.”