By Eric Thompson at Bathurst
It’s often said The Mountain will decide who wins the Bathurst 1000. The Great Race giveth and the Great Race taketh away. It was Kiwi Matthew Payne and co-driver Garth Tander who weathered atrocious conditions and whom the Bathurst Gods looked kindly on in a race full of chaos, carnage and heartbreak.
“That was absolutely insane,” said Payne straight after the race. “When I got back in the car in the wet [last stint] it felt like ages with all the safety cars that kept stalling our race.
“I saw Jimmy [James Golding] get into the side of Cooper [Murray] I sort of knew that was going to happen and I managed to get through.
“I felt like I ran out of tyres towards the finish, but a win’s a win and we’ll take it. The conditions were difficult, but it’s the biggest race of the year, so I just went for it.”
In the run-up to the race, Payne and his team had struggled to get the car in the right window, but boy, did everything come good during the race, where he hauled himself from 18th at the start to win the big one.
“It’s just so, so good for the guys as they’ve worked so hard. It’s so cool. It was a bit sketchy in some parts, but we hung in there and overcome everything to get the win. Garth was amazing as well,” he said.
David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth came home second with Golding and David Russell in third.
Best of the rest of the Kiwis was Andre Heimgartner (co-driver Declan Fraser), seventh.
The races of Ryan Wood (Jayden Ojeda), 19th, Richie Stanaway (Nash Morris), 22nd, and Jaxon Evans (Jack Smith), 23rd, all ended prematurely.
Most of the starting grid was filled with co-drivers as the lights went out. The crowd held its collective breath as the cars howled towards the aptly named Hell Corner, where many a team’s race has come unstuck on lap one.
Bathurst 1000 recap: Kiwi Matt Payne victorious after challenging race
Todd Hazelwood led the chasing pack of Mark Winterbottom, Cooper Murray, Jayden Ojeda and Fabian Coulthard up Mountain Straight and solidified his lead over the first five laps.
The rain arrived two and half hours into the race and the chaos started. First Morris and Cameron McLeod had a coming together and hit the wall at The Cutting, followed by Kostecki racing across the sand trap at The Chase, handing the lead to Cam Waters. Kostecki forced himself back into the lead heading up the mountain, only for Waters to pull alongside and the two banged off each other until Waters muscled through into the lead.
Shortly after a flurry of pitstops, Winterbottom hit the wall at Forrest’s Elbow, necessitating him heading to pit lane again. At half race distance, the rain arrived with vengeance. Russell was in front from Ojeda, Zak Best, Jarrod Hughes and Tander.
Just before the 100 laps were completed, Kostecki decided to give Kai Allen a hurry up and punted him down the escape road at the end of the front straight. Kostecki was hit with a drive through penalty, effectively ending any chance of him defending is Bathurst title.
With 40 laps to go, things started to heat up again as Feeney slowly began to eat into Wood’s lead with Allen and Golding just ahead of Payne.
Feeney’s challenge for his first Bathurst 1000 win came to an end when he fired his car into the wall at Forrest’s Elbow on lap 124, pushing too hard on cold tyres.
Just after the restart, Golding barged himself past Wood to skip away in appalling conditions. Allen was again being used as punching bag by Brown, who rear-ended him and then shortly after, Jack Le Brocq pushed him up the escape road. Meanwhile, up front, Payne was lurking with intent behind the top two.
Defending Supercars champion Brown’s race was over when he merged with the wall at Griffin’s Bend. After yet another restart, Wood pounced on Golding at Hell Corner and led the field up Mountain Straight with Payne in third. On the next lap, Wood fired off at the chase, letting Golding back into the lead, and then Macauley Jones crashed at Forrest’s Elbow, bringing out yet another safety car.
As the field followed the safety car, Wood’s car began stuttering and he had to crawl back to the garage, ending his tilt at a first Bathurst 1000 win.
“I’m lost for words,” said Wood. “I’m gutted for the team. All week we put ourselves in the position to try and win the race.
“I made quite a few errors but got lucky, and then something happened to the car that ended our race.”
Stanaway’s race ended abruptly at The Cutting with 17 laps to go after hauling himself up through the field to sit fifth on the road.
With 10 laps to go, it was seat of your pants stuff. The running order was Murray, Payne, Golding, Heimgartner and Reynolds. On the next lap Payne took a detour through the sand at The Chase, handing the lead to Murray.
Golding tried to force his way past Murray, coming together, causing them both to slide off, allowing Payne to inherit the lead with five laps to go. Consequently, Golding was hit with a five-second penalty, leaving Payne to win the biggest race of his career.
Compared with last year’s snooze-fest, this year’s race was one for the ages.