Matthew Payne targets Supercars title as F1 support races heat up in Melbourne

Matthew Payne of the No 19 Penrite Racing Ford Mustang GT during the Melbourne Supersprint. Photo / Getty Images

The tin tops are on the same dance card as the open wheelers this weekend at the opening round of the 2026 Formula One season. The Supercars championship is sharing the Melbourne track with F1 and it’s the perfect opportunity for the drivers in the iconic Australian V8 series to showcase their stuff.

Kiwi driver Matthew Payne is very much looking forward to racing in front of F1 drivers and their respective teams and possibly the biggest race weekend of the Supercars’ season.

“I think it’s awesome that our sport is part of the support category for the F1 weekend,” said Payne.

“We’re pitted out the back, which I don’t mind, and it’s cool that we get to put on our show in front of all the F1 people and the fans.

“It’s a bit of a different demographic and it’s great that they are able to witness our sport and hopefully might follow it in the future.”

Payne is joint series leader on 259 points with Broc Feeney after the opening round of the championship at Sydney Motorsport Park. Cam Waters sits third (238) followed by Anton De Pasquale (197) and Brodie Kostecki (186).

Payne didn’t appear to be the standout driver of the round but he proved that points mean prizes. While not winning a race, he did finish fourth, third and second to match Feeney on championship points despite the Australian winning two races.

“We had a really strong opening round but didn’t probably have the car pace we wanted during the race. Qualifying was good for us being in the top five each time, but we’ll be wanting to improve our race pace,” he said.

With four sprint races of 19 laps duration (race four is 14 laps), no compulsory pit stops and a fast, wide track, a drivers’ only way to win is to get past the cars ahead, which has led to barnstorming action on the track in recent years.

At the end of this weekend’s race fans will have a better idea who might just be championship contenders. The opening round was just that, the opening round, and for teams who did well at the event, this is their chance to prove it wasn’t just a flash-in-the-pan moment.

“This weekend the races are sprint events which is a little bit different to what we normally do. Each one is pretty short and pretty aggressive racing as we have seen in the past, so it’s going to be pretty interesting,” said Payne.

“I love this track, love the event and love the racing, so I’m looking forward to it. The track is wide with lots of passing opportunities and it’s always crazy with people being carted of even at the first corner.

“There’s someone driving from 22nd to fifth or something like that and always unreal stories coming out of the weekend. It’s just cool to be part of I guess.”

Kostecki won the first race of the weekend from pole position, taking maximum points with the fastest lap of the race.

Bathurst champion Payne and Feeney filled the podium positions, with the Kiwi taking the championship lead from Feeney.

“I think we were pretty close. We got right to the back of him on that last lap. Around here it’s chess racing. We are conserving our tyres, trying to make the 100 kilometres,” said Payne.

“We were going all out in the last five laps and managed to pull away from Broc, but yeah, just ran out of laps unfortunately.”