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FWC on Sport Nation guideSupercars leader Payne continues strong Townsville weekend
Sebastian Tan, AAP • July 11th, 2026 7:02 pm
Kiwi Matt Payne has roared to victory in race 21 of the Supercars season in North Queensland | Photo: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Matt Payne has underlined his status as the new Supercars leader by producing an utterly dominant display in the second race of the Townsville 500.
The Grove Racing star claimed his third win of the season by a mammoth 15.2885 seconds in the 68-lap, 200km race at Reid Park Street Circuit on Saturday.
It ends the New Zealander's first-place drought since the Christchurch Super 440 in April, despite earning a flurry of podiums in between.
Payne overtook Broc Feeney in Friday's sprint race after finishing third, although he knew he needed to continue his sparkling form on Saturday to extend his eight-point lead over the Triple Eight Race Engineering star.
Matt Payne proved too slick for all comers in Townsville | Photo: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Despite relinquishing his provisional pole to Dick Johnson Racing driver Brodie Kostecki, the Kiwi rebounded, capitalising on Kostecki's poor pit stop at the end of lap 20 to earn a sizeable advantage over the pole-sitter.
Where the drama came to a head was in the chasing pack as Anton De Pasquale produced a remarkable comeback, thrusting himself from 11th to second.
A shaky pitstop at the end of lap 50 allowed the third-placed Kostecki to move up one spot, although the Team 18 star delivered a crafty slice on the inside lane on lap 56 to sneak back into second.
De Pasquale began to run out of fuel as the Dick Johnson Racing driver upped the ante, but the 30-year-old held his nerve to snare his third podium of the campaign.
Thomas Randle was looking for his second podium of the season after starting in third, but the Tickford Racing driver had to settle for fifth as he was ultimately outclassed by his teammate Cam Waters.
But Waters won't be too happy with his fourth-placed finish, considering he was aiming for a fifth consecutive podium, which included claiming victory in Friday's sprint.
It had been 78 races since Feeney missed out on starting in the top 10 two consecutive times and although he began in 18th, the ex-championship leader soared up 10 positions to come eighth.
Walkinshaw TWG's Ryan Wood had a race to forget after he was nudged off the track by Kai Allen midway through the race and finished last.
After a great qualifying campaign which helped him start eighth on the grid, James Golding's hopes of a third podium were dashed after he had smoke billowing out of his car during the opening moments of the race.
Why Kiwi drivers excel in motorsport | Sport Nation
