Feeney recounts “pretty wild” Payne-Waters battle

Feeney gained a position off the start to run third initially, until the two Ford Mustangs ahead of him came to blows.

Payne, who had qualified on pole position but was jumped when the lights went out, took the lead when he passed Waters at Ascari (Turn 11).

Waters made nose-to-tail contact with the #19 Grove Racing entry at Turn 13, before Payne swung across to open up the arc of the Turn 14 right-hander, leading to a side-to-side hit which resulted in both ending the contest in the wall.

“It was pretty wild,” recounted Feeney after driving the #88 Triple Eight Race Engineering Camaro to victory.

“First, it was just good to get a good start and move up behind those guys.

“They were racing hard; like, I could tell Cam was blocking quite a bit but Matt was pretty keen to get back through to the lead.

“So, I knew he was going to have a crack down into [Turn] 11 again and Cam was blocking super-hard, so it got pretty messy down towards the second-last corner.

“Then I think Cam gave Matt a little rub and Matt went wide and I’d snuck up next to Cam and, next minute, they’ve tangled and off in the fence.

“It was pretty hard racing for pretty early on in the race and, look, they’re both having a crack out there.

“I’ve been in Matt’s situation – you lose the lead and you want to get it back pretty quick – and he’s been real fast.

“So, unfortunate to see that’s how it goes, it’s obviously nice to make the move on-track but, yeah, unfortunate for those two.”

Stewards essentially decided the clash was a racing incident, opting to take no further action, with “each driver ([Waters] for Turn 13 and [Payne] for Turn 14) contribut[ing] to the incident where neither driver have been classified as a Finisher in the race classifications.”

Tempers flared between the drivers themselves, though, with Waters’ frustration obvious in opening Payne’s passenger door to have words with the Kiwi before he had even exited his own vehicle.