Championship leader Matt Payne has outfoxed, outboxed rival Broc Feeney, and earned a little bit of luck to win a Sunday stunner in Perth.
Just 24 hours after Feeney muscled his way past Payne to win Saturday’s second race in Perth, Payne returned serve with a bold move as Feeney re-joined the circuit, the two banging wheels for the win on Lap 51.
The collision damaged Payne’s left rear tyre, forcing the 2025 Bathurst 1000 winner to manage the damage across the remaining 28 laps of the race, all with Feeney breathing down his neck.
“I don’t even know when to start,'” commented Payne. I knew Broc (Feeney) was going to be quick, and I knew that we were going to run the strategy we did to try and undercut him at that point.
“Just ever so slightly we banged wheels. Something just felt óff’. The car was loose and hard to drive as up until that point it was mega. Credit to Broc, he raced me clean.”
Post-race images showed the tyre was pulled slightly off the rim, making for a minor miracle that it held on to take the win of today’s race.
Chevrolet’s Anton De Pasquale finished third to round out the podium, his second of the weekend.
Tickford’s Cam Waters finished fourth, while Payne’s teammate Kai Allen stormed from 23rd on the grid to round out the top five.
Supercars announced a weekend attendance of 40,213 for the three-day event in Perth, the largest at MotorMall Wanneroo Raceway in 10 years.
Payne extends his championship lead over Feeney to 118 points as the Championship heads to Ipswich later this month for the finale of the Repco Sprint Cup.
The driver who leads the Championship at the end of the Ipswich event will earn an automatic berth in the Supercars Finals, as well as 25 bonus points for the Finals opener on the Gold Coast in October.
“We’ve seen this weekend that Broc and the Triple eight cars have got better this weekend,” said Payne. “We are in a great position, but the pressure is on.”
Only Payne, Feeney, and Waters (277 points behind Payne) are mathematically eligible to win the Sprint Cup.
“We rolled out a much more competitive car on Friday,” said Feeney. “I mean, from that first session of practice it felt like we were right in the mix. We had a car that was capable of winning races, we had a car that was fast, felt like it could fight up the front again.”
The Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440 takes place August 21-23 at Queensland Raceway, the ninth round of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship.
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