New Zealand driver Matt Payne during the 2026 ITM Christchurch 440 at Ruapuna Raceway. Photo / Photosport
Matt Payne put on a sublime exhibition of a near-perfect race with speed, strategy, pit stops and tyre management, all executed impeccably in the feature race of the Christchurch Super 440 weekend, to take a comprehensive win.
Payne set his marker out earlier on day three of Supercars racing at Ruapuna when he made the top 10 shootout and then put the rest of the field to the sword claiming pole. In fact, the Kiwi driver has qualified inside the top 10 for every race so far this season.
“What a freaking race, that was so, so fantastic,” Payne said. “Winning at home is so great. I knew we had a good car today and even in qualifying we had a bit of a margin.
“It was a perfect race for us and having a good car all I had to do was execute. We were damn fast and it was damn enjoyable.
“I felt calm before the race and knew that if I started well, I knew I would have a pretty good opportunity to carry on [and win].”
Disaster struck for compatriot Ryan Wood with seven of the 61 laps to go. Wood was leading the race for the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy when he rolled to a stop on the front straight.
“It’s really a shame about Woody [Wood] and I feel sorry for him. He was leading the J.R. Trophy and so that’s pretty disappointing. I tried as hard as I could [to win the trophy] but even with the win yesterday it wasn’t enough,” Payne said.
As a result of the subsequent safety car deployment after Wood’s demise, Payne’s lead was wiped clean and it was a three-lap sprint to the end. Payne skipped away again from Aussie teammate Kai Allen, who was running as wingman.
With two laps to go, Chaz Mostert shouldered Brodie Kostecki into the dirt ending his race while fighting for fourth and fifth place. With all the drama happening behind him Payne cruised across the line to take the win from Allen and Broc Feeney who, with Wood’s demise, won the J.R. Trophy.
“It’s not nice to hear that the safety car boards are coming out with five laps to go, but that’s just what it was,” Payne said.
Pole-sitter Payne got an excellent start and led the field easily into the first corner from Will Brown, Anton De Pasquale, Allen and Feeney. Wood couldn’t get hooked up and dropped back to ninth before hauling himself up to fifth over the opening lap.
Cameron Waters couldn’t get his car off the line for the warm-up lap and had to start from pit lane.
Chaos reigned as per usual further back in the field resulting in Aaron Cameron, Rylan Gray, Thomas Randle and Jackson Walls all receiving heavy damage.
Race-one winner Allen put his start to good use and pushed himself into third as the meat in a Brown and Feeney sandwich. Allen had more pace than Brown, and on attempting a pass, Brown aggressively blocked Allen and was subsequently shown the bad sportsman flag.
While all this argy-bargy was going behind him, Payne was using the clear air to stretch his lead out to just over five seconds by lap 11.
Some of the drivers elected to get the first of the two mandatory stops out of the way early. Brown came in from second, only to be undercut by Allen. Payne decided to run long and pitted on lap 25. Before his stop, Payne was still one of the fastest cars on track, despite being on old tyres.
Once everyone had completed their pit stops, the running order at the half-race distance was Payne, who had a nine-second advantage up his sleeve on the chasing pack, consisting of Allen, Feeney, Mostert, Brown, Kostecki and Wood.
Payne was imperious at the front, and as the lap counter ticked over to 41, the second round of pitstops began. Before Payne pitted his engineer came over the radio with an ominous message for the rest of the field.
“Your next set of tyres are going to be the best you’ve ever had,” his engineer said.
A faultless final pit stop saw the flying Kiwi rejoin the race a handy eight seconds up the road from Allen, Feeney, Mostert, Kostecki, Brown and Wood.
The only fly in the ointment was the safety car interruption with seven laps to go. However, nothing was going to stop Payne winning his second race of the weekend from Allen, Feeney, James Golding and Waters.
Feeney now leads the championship on 925 points from Kostecki (902), Payne (879), Waters (787), Allen (724) and Wood (726).