Kiwi driver Matt Payne celebrates with his Supercars team after winning the Saturday afternoon race at Ruapuna. Photo / Edge Photographic
Three races and three winners – that’s the takeaway from the Supercars round at Ruapuna, Christchurch, with one race to go on Sunday.
Kai Allen dominated Friday’s race, Brodie Kostecki took out Saturday morning’s race and Matthew Payne brought a bit of redemption with a dominant display in the afternoon race.
“To get the win is so epic,” Payne said. “I’m so happy. We were over everything: tyres, fuel, track, dust and sun. There was lots going on.
“It’s such a good track to drive and I really love it and so stoked to get a win in front of a home crowd.
“I wasn’t able to get my starts right in the first two races and finally got it done and could pull away.”
In what has become a pattern at Ruapuna, three drivers have dominated the pointy end of the field: Payne, Ryan Wood and Kostecki, with Allen, James Golding and Broc Feeney playing the odd cameo.
Payne could have won Saturday’s first race if not for a mechanical mishap after his pit stop that saw him drop to 19th.
“We had a wheel go missing down the track, and what a turnaround. Man, our car has been so fast. We rolled out strong, and being able to use it [on Saturday] was so good.
“I could just drive the car and put it where I wanted. The team did an awesome job,” Payne said.
Kostecki leads the championship on 868 points from Feeney (807), Payne (734), Wood (726) and Cameron Waters (687). Wood still leads the race for the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy with one race to go.
For the first time this round, Payne took advantage of his front-row start in Saturday’s afternoon race to skip away from the field over the opening laps. Wood had his worst start of the weekend from P2, dropping a few places before eventually reclaiming second from Feeney.
Morning race winner Kostecki was fourth ahead of Golding, with Kiwi Andre Heimgartner 15th.
The race settled into a familiar rhythm, with the top four starting to gap the rest of the field.
For the second race in a row, Payne went long before taking his pit stop. In this case, the rear wheel remained attached to the car and he continued with a healthy lead over Wood, Feeney and Kostecki.
A few laps later, a resurgent Feeney slipped past Wood into second. With a handful of laps to go Golding squeezed past Kostecki to claim fourth, and a few laps later, he pulled the same move on Wood to clinch third with two laps to go.
Saturday’s first race was almost a repeat of Friday’s event, with Payne again getting a shoddy start from P2 and being passed by Allen and Wood.
Also mirroring race one, there was a moment further back in the field, with Heimgartner getting punted and Cameron Hill being shouldered off the track.
The race eventually settled down in a Groundhog Day sort of way, as Kostecki led from Allen, Wood and Payne, with the rest of the field lagging behind.
Allen’s team could not repeat Friday’s undercut after the pit stops and came out behind the hard-charging Kostecki, with Wood tucked in behind.
Payne left his pit stop much later in the race hoping to have fresher rear tyres towards the end to mount a challenge for the lead.
But disaster struck for Payne one lap after rejoining the race. His right rear tyre parted company with his car, ending any chance of a good result.
Allen spent the second half of the race glued to Kostecki’s rear bumper but was unable to pull off a pass. Wood finished third, followed by Brown and Feeney.
“I got a ripper start again,” Kostecki said. “We changed a lot on the car [on Friday night] and we had good pace and took advantage of the clean air. Kai was all over my bumper, but when his tyres went off, it was sort of game over.”
“We struggled a bit in that race and didn’t have the pace of the guys in front,” Wood said.
“A tough one, but still happy to be third. Brodie’s on a tear, so we’ll just have to keep chipping away.”
In qualifying for Saturday’s first race, Kostecki just got his nose in front of Payne for pole, with Aaron Cameron impressing with the third-fastest lap.
Wood had set a benchmark time before heading into the pits and was bumped down to sixth behind Feeney and Allen. Heimgartner, the third Kiwi in the field, started ninth.
Qualifying for race two saw a Kiwi front row lockout, with Wood redeeming himself by putting his Toyota on pole, with Payne next to him.
Pole-sitter for Saturday’s first race, Kostecki was third-fastest ahead of Allen and Anton De Pasquale. Heimgartner didn’t make the top 10 qualifying and started the race 11th.