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Gisborne: Planned outages Tue-WedPayne's Bathurst 1000 epic a Supercars ratings winner
Joanna Guelas, AAP •  October 13th, 2025 6:30 pm
Matt Payne crosses the finish line to win the Bathurst 1000 | Photo: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Supercars will take much-needed hype into its inaugural final series after Matt Payne's remarkable Bathurst 1000 victory drew its largest television audience in eight years.
Payne and legendary co-driver Garth Tander weathered rivals, torrential rain and numerous safety cars to win one of the most extraordinary races at Mount Panorama.
Early data from Fox Sports estimated the near seven-hour blockbuster drew 1.2 million viewers across broadcast and streaming platforms, with numbers expected to rise.
Free-to-air rights holders Seven's total average audience was up 35 per cent year-on-year on uncorrected times, while the streaming audience doubled.
Sunday's race was the biggest streaming day for 7plus outside of the AFL grand final, which boasted an average audience of 4.18 million.
It is the biggest Bathurst 1000 audience since the 2017 running, which had an average audience of 1.89 million across Fox, Network Ten and WIN.
Payne will be among those rewatching Sunday's race.
"I've seen a few little bits, but I'm going to enjoy it when I can sit down and finally watch it," Payne said on Monday.
The now six-time Bathurst 1000 winner Tander joked: "He's been flat out on it all morning."
Sunday's 1000km race went down to the final lap when Payne prevailed in a tense top-three battle, but that wasn't the only highlight.
Multiple crashes in low visibility and enthralling wet-weather duels involving heavyweights including Brodie Kostecki, Cam Waters and Broc Feeney produced an instant classic on Sunday.
James Golding crossed the finish line first but was made to give up the crown after receiving a five-second penalty for an earlier collision with rookie Cooper Murray.
"I was in the car when the Kostecki-Waters thing was going on and those guys were racing hard," Tander said.
Mount Panorama delivered once again | Photo Clay Cross/Photosport
"I was in the middle of some really crazy stuff.
"Bathurst always delivers something very, very special."
Payne was reluctant to claim his triumph as the greatest Bathurst 1000, pointing to Chaz Mostert's race win in 2014.
Mostert, then 22, had started last on the grid, was at one point in the fence, and only took the lead on the last lap when Supercars great Jamie Whincup ran out of fuel.
"I'll always look back and see 2014 as one of the best I've ever watched," Payne said.
"Hopefully, this year can go down as somewhere on par with that, I think that would be pretty epic."
Matt Payne on winning Bathurst from 18th | Sport Nation Afternoons
