Bathurst 1000: Matthew Payne confident despite tyre challenges and fierce competition

Kiwi Matthew Payne’s tilt at his first Bathurst 1000 win got off to a good start on Thursday as he set the fastest time in practice. That’s no indicator of success in the race itself, but it does give the team confidence.

Payne is undoubtedly quick and has a couple of Supercars race wins to his name already. He is confident this weekend could be his chance to get a top result at the iconic Mt Panorama circuit.

“We were looking pretty sharp at Sandown and probably should have got third [instead of fourth],” Payne said from Bathurst. “We made a few mistakes, but we picked up plenty of points so that’s okay.

“We were pretty fast around here [Mt Panorama] last year but probably didn’t have the car in the race to compete [for the win]. We made the shootout, which was pretty cool.

“We’ll be pushing as hard as we can and, by the end of the race on Sunday, I hope we’re up at the front somewhere.

“We’ve shown at times this year what we can do when everything comes together and hopefully it’ll happen again this weekend.”

The 22-year-old is in only his second season in the main game and believes that having Garth Tander co-driving reinforces the potential of making the podium and possibly winning the race.

Tander is a five-time winner and is about to start his 27th Great Race. “He’s got so much experience and I’ll definitely be learning as much as I can from him and be soaking it all up and enjoying as much as I can over the weekend.

“We’re lucky that more or less Garth and I like the same setup in the car. Our driving styles are a little bit different, but we’re both looking for the same thing out of the car.

“We’ll just be fine-tuning the car in preparation for qualifying and then looking to having a good race on Sunday.”

There are a few variables for the drivers to navigate this year, chiefly having to use hard tyres. This changes the feel and the balance of the car and will challenge teams to get the setup right from the start.

Payne believes all the drivers will make mistakes and success will be about who makes the fewest errors and mitigates them best.

“We still have a little bit of work to do with the hard tyre and need to try and work that out during practice before qualifying and the shootout.

“You could lean on the soft tyres a bit more but, with the hard tyre, it’s a bit of a struggle to get the temperature up, especially on a qualifying lap. And it’s a bit tricky on your warmup lap as well. It’s the same for everyone, though.

“Another thing is that you have to start the race with a main game driver, which changes the strategy a bit. There’s also the use of full course yellows now that changes things quite a bit from previous years.”

Sunday’s race is shaping up to be a good one with several drivers in contention for the win. The points table is close, with Will Brown leading on 2280, followed by Chaz Mostert (2091), Broc Feeney (2058), Cam Waters (1834) and Payne fifth on 1659.

With 300 points on offer for the win, there could be some shuffling on the table if one of the current leaders falters.

Top five picks for Bathurst 1000

Number one pick: Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup will be flying around the mountain and Feeney has a point to prove after the disappointment of last year. Whincup has the pedigree and is almost without peer at Bathurst. The pair had a good result at Sandown, finishing second, and the car looks very quick indeed. The Triple Eight cars have always been strong at Mt Panorama and will be again this year.

Odds on: Despite Scott Pye putting Will Brown’s car into the wall during practice, this pairing will be hard to beat. Brown and Pye won at Sandown and Brown leads the Supercars championship so they would be hard to bet against. Brown has a best result of eighth in the Great Race and is due for at least a podium, if not the win. Pye has two second-place finishes and will be keen to stick it to his former team after being dumped as a full-time driver.

Don’t discount: Cam Waters and James Moffit were quick at the Sandown 500 but had some bad luck to finish sixth. Waters is consistently quick at Bathurst and finished on the podium in 2021 and 2022. Moffit is regularly one of the fastest co-drivers and is always in the mix. He will do his job well if he doesn’t throw it away like last year. The Tickford cars have improved during the season and are as quick as anything else in the field.

In with a chance: Kiwi Matthew Payne has the well-respected and proven stager Garth Tander sharing driver duties this weekend. Tander will be going for his sixth Bathurst 1000 win and it should be no surprise if he and Payne put the rest of the field to the sword. Payne made the top 10 shootout last year but struggled through the race. He knows how to win a Supercars race and, if they stay out of trouble, they’ll be nicely poised at the end.

Outsider: You can’t go past James Golding and David Russell if their podium finish at Sandown is anything to go by. Golding has proved he can run with the leaders of the pack as indicated by his pole position at Darwin. Confidence-wise, the pair will be flying high and they have a very good car. Golding’s record at Bathurst isn’t stellar, but the way he’s been going this year, he and the solid Russell could put the frighteners up a few of the more fancied driver pairings.