The 22-year-old appeared set for a big weekend when he topped Friday qualifying aboard the Grove Racing Mustang he shared with Garth Tander.
There were a series of spills from there, however, as he tagged the wall in the Top 10 Shootout and speared through the gravel in the Sunday morning warm-up.
Payne was then running in eighth place when he crashed at The Cutting on lap 131, triggering the race’s first and only Safety Car intervention.
“It was pretty simple really, I just missed the downshift, got loose and there’s no real coming back from that at that section of the track,” Payne explained on the TV broadcast.
“Really disappointed. Our car was OK, we were trucking along pretty nicely there for a bit, but just a bad mistake on my part which ended up ruining our day, so not much to say.”
THE SAFETY CAR IS OUT!
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Ironically, Payne’s crash triggered the Safety Car intervention that he – and many others – needed to get back in contention amid a fast-paced race.
Secure your spot today.
“I didn’t want it to be me, I was hoping it was someone else in the fence. But it reminds you how easily it can go wrong around this joint,” he said.
“It’s definitely character building, but I’ll keep beating the hell out of this joint until I go well here.”
Richie Stanaway and Dale Wood salvaged a ninth place for Grove Racing, having run out of fuel on the last lap while running sixth.
“Our car was pretty nice all day,” said Wood, who was one of few co-drivers to complete his laps in a double-stint.
“We were missing a couple of little bits that were just keeping us from being in that top three and then to run out of fuel on that last lap was a real heartbreak.
“Sixth was there for us. That was the number and I thought that was about where we were at for the day, and to run out of fuel on the last lap hurts.”
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