A well-executed strategy and incredible tyre management has seen Matthew Payne claim his fourth win of the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship season against the odds in an epic final race of the Tasmania Super 440.
Having started the race from outside the top 10 and losing places off the line, Payne and the Penrite Racing team made a big call during the race’s sole safety car period to complete both mandatory pit stops in that window – a move that gave Payne track position once the whole field did their second stops.
Coming back out on track on lap 35 with more than half the race to go, Payne did his best to keep the lead, holding off a late charge from Broc Feeney to cross the line ahead of the current championship leader by an incredible five hundredths of a second.
“We had a pretty crazy weekend if I’m honest,” commented Payne. “Probably struggled with the one-lap speed. We just missed out on getting the shootout on Sunday and ultimately qualified 11th.
“Our Saturday was okay. We had a 16th and a seventh. So I recovered to get some points in the late race on Saturday. But it was an absolutely crazy race on Sunday. We played the strategy game, and I ended up doing like 50 laps on a set of super softs and just held on on the last lap to win here.
“It was a crazy race with Broc, but it was super fun. I enjoyed every minute of it. It was tough, but the team did an unreal job with the strategy. But not so lucky for Kai, unfortunately.”
With Feeney having been one of the last drivers to take that second pit in order to set up a late charge, the Queenslander had reached Payne ahead of the final few laps, with a stubborn Payne defending brilliantly to stop Feeney from getting past at any opportunity.
The dramatic photo-finish victory was the perfect way to cap off a somewhat mixed weekend for the New Zealander, who ended up P16 in the weekend’s opening race before picking up a top 10 finish in Saturday afternoon’s outing.
While Payne’s heroic result on Sunday was undoubtedly the highlight of the weekend, his Race 11 efforts early on Saturday afternoon proved just as impressive as he started from the back of the field and managed to navigate his way up eight places thanks to a late charge through the field.
Unfortunately, teammate Kai Allen experienced a challenging Sunday after being in the wrong place at the wrong time during the opening laps when he was caught up in an incident ahead of him, which resulted in significant damage to the Ford Mustang.
The incident was a difficult pill to swallow after Allen had made a good start to the race, only to be involved in the contact before spending a large portion of time in the garage as the Penrite Racing crew worked on the car, eventually coming out to finish the race in P24.
Saturday’s results proved a much better day for the rookie as he started and finished in 12th place overall in the weekend’s first race before placing 18th in the day’s second outing, having qualified in P16 after a moment early on in Race 2 saw him lose some places.
Following Sunday’s victory, Payne has moved up the standings and into third place overall, just 75 points off Feeney at the top, while Allen ended the round in P19.
Penrite Racing also moved up the standings in the Teams Championship, replacing Dick Johnson Racing to slot into fourth overall and just 20 points off Walkinshaw Andretti United in third.
The 2025 season continues early next month with the Perth Super 440 at Carco.com.au Raceway on June 6–8.
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