Payne qualified 10th and was not quite the fastest in the opening stint, but an early first stop set him free to put the hammer down in the #19 Penrite Mustang.

When the chequered flag flew after 88 laps, he was 6.0575s ahead of Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters, who held off Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert in the battle for second place.

Behind the all-Ford podium was pole-sitter Jack Le Brocq in his Erebus Motorsport Camaro, with Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney getting home seventh.

Feeney’s team-mate Brown was classified three laps down in 24th in a #87 Camaro left badly bruised from a Lap 1 incident with David Reynolds.

His lead in the Repco Supercars Championship standings is a reduced 78 points over Feeney with six events down and six to go in 2024.

Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) had bolted clear at the start but Le Brocq (#9 Tyrepower Camaro) made a sluggish getaway and dropped to fourth, behind Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang) and Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang).

Feeney (#87 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) was shuffled outside of the top 10 when he had to yield on the outside of Le Brocq and James Courtney (#7 Snowy River Caravans Mustang) as they exited Turn 9, but far worse was to befall his Triple Eight team-mate.

Brown, who had qualified 17th, went across the nose of Reynolds (#20 Tradie Beer Camaro) and into the wall at ‘Turn 2.5’, causing significant damage to the bodywork of his Red Bull Ampol Camaro.

Reynolds escaped punishment and ‘no further action’ was also the call in an incident between #87 and #4, that being Cameron Hill, which was unseen by broadcast cameras except that Brown was spotted facing the wrong way at Turn 8 on his way back to the pits for running repairs.

Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Mustang) was on an early climb but Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) was charging even harder.

Mostert passed Payne for sixth at Turn 2 on Lap 3, Courtney for fifth at Turn 11 on Lap 4, Le Brocq for fourth at Turn 2 on Lap 6, and Davison for third at Turn 2 on Lap 7.

The Race 13 runner-up was in second place again when he outbraked Randle at Turn 11 on Lap 11, at which point Waters was a second up the road.

Payne passed Davison at Turn 11 on Lap 9 and then moved into third when he went under Randle at Turn 2 on Lap 13.

Fifth onwards at that point was Davison, Le Brocq, Courtney, De Pasquale, Ryan Wood (#2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Mustang), and Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro).

Feeney had still not recovered and he sat 12th, half a second behind Brodie Kostecki (#1 Erebus Camaro).

Race Control officially declared the circuit wet as grey clouds threatened again, but Payne pitted from 2.2s behind the lead on Lap 19 for four tyres, including greens on the rear.

Mostert has drifted to 2.7s behind Waters when he pitted on Lap 23 and, for a second day in a row, WAU apparently had to cover a drama on a wheel with a longer fuel fill.

Le Brocq and De Pasquale stopped on Lap 25, Randle peeled off from six seconds behind Waters on Lap 29 and was followed in by Feeney, before Waters and Davison pitted on Lap 31.

Payne assumed the lead with the undercut, from the long-running Matt Stone Racing entries, then Mostert and Le Brocq, with a short-filled Wood going down the inside of Waters at Turn 2 for fifth spot.

Payne led by 15 seconds once Mostert assumed second place when Hill (#4 PPQ Camaro) pitted on Lap 34, and Davison was 18th after a big first fill and a big rear ride height adjustment once the first pit cycle was finally complete on Lap 35.

Mostert was still 15.6s behind when he pitted on Lap 42 for another four tyres, before Payne was in for likewise a lap later, but a longer fuel fill.

That was evident when, once up to speed, they were less than seven seconds apart, having committed to the three-stop strategy.

As they scythed back through the field, and Feeney made ground on his fellow two-stoppers, Waters went under Le Brocq for the official lead on Lap 51 at Turn 2.

Payne passed Randle for third on Lap 52 at Turn 7, and was just eight seconds away from the lead.

It was four seconds when he picked off Le Brocq for second place on Lap 56 at Turn 10, with the pole-sitter pitting moments later.

Payne closed within two seconds on Waters on Lap 58 and caught him on Lap 61, meaning he was effectively leading if the expected fuel fill delta of about 18 litres was taken into account.

Waters pitted on Lap 61, as did Feeney from fourth, while Payne and Mostert pressed on until Lap 63, when they stopped together but at 11 seconds apart.

At the rejoin, it was Payne in fifth, Waters eighth, and Mostert 10th, although the latter had new rears when the former two were on lightly used tyres on all four corners.

Payne assumed the lead again with 21 laps to go, by a margin of 7.7s to Waters and 2.5s more to Le Brocq, with Mostert fourth and Randle fifth.

Le Brocq chose not to fight when Mostert went down his inside at Turn 13 on Lap 69, with Mark Winterbottom (#18 DeWalt Camaro) running sixth once the stops shook out, from Heimgartner, Courtney, Wood, Feeney in 10th, and Davison in 11th.

Wood had pace in the run home and passed Winterbottom for sixth at Turn 11 on Lap 75, before Feeney got by Car #18 inside the final 11 laps.

Meanwhile, Payne was managing a lead of about nine seconds over Waters, who had been caught by Mostert, but they could not go hell-for-leather in case a late Safety Car compressed the field.

Payne cruised to his and Grove Racing’s first victory of the season, while Waters shook off Mostert in the end.

Le Brocq finished 7.5s further back in fourth, from Randle, Wood, Feeney, Winterbottom, Hill, and James Golding (#31 Nulon Camaro).

Heimgartner ended up 11th, from Davison and De Pasquale, with Courtney 16th, Kostecki 18th, and Brown 24th.

The next event is the Panasonic Air Conditioning Sydney SuperNight at Sydney Motorsport Park on July 19-21.

Results: Race 14, NTI Townsville 500

Drivers’ championship

Teams’ championship