Payne ends drought with dominant Christchurch Supercars win

Payne pipped fellow front row starter Ryan Wood at the start and never looked back, establishing a healthy lead before the pit stops.

He maintained that gap over the Walkinshaw TWG Racing Toyota Supra after the tyre changes to eventually establish a lead of more than 10 seconds.

Wood’s podium hopes faded late in the 37-lapper as his tyres wore. He conceded second place to Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney inside the final 10 laps and then third place to hard charger James Golding, who equalled his best result with the Blanchard Racing Team.

It ended a wretched run for Payne who lost out on a win from pole position on Friday and another shot at victory on Saturday morning after losing his right rear wheel.

Payne’s win ends a 12-race drought dating back to the 2025 Adelaide Grand Final.

“We had a wheel go missing down the middle of the track a few hours ago. What a turnaround,” said Payne.

“Man, our car has been so fast all day. We rolled out really strong and just being able to use it today and being able to finally get the win this afternoon has been so epic.

“The guys and girls have done such a good job with it. We rolled out strong and I was so happy.

“I thought we were going to get there in the first race today but fortunately we did it in the second.”

Lights out for Race 12 in Christchurch!

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From the cleaner side of the road, Payne got the jump on Wood and took the lead into Turn 1. It was a relatively clean start deep in the field, save for Aaron Cameron who banged doors with champion Chaz Mostert over 13th.

At the end of Lap 1, it was Payne who led Wood and Broc Feeney, who made up three places at the start.

Brodie Kostecki dropped one spot to fourth while Golding made up two places to fifth. The top 10 was completed by Kai Allen, Anton De Pasquale, Jack Le Brocq, Cameron Waters, and Rylan Gray.

The biggest loser on Lap 1 was PremiAir Racing’s Jayden Ojeda, who dropped six places to 16th. By Lap 2, Aaron Cameron was down six places to 14th.

The biggest improver, meanwhile, was Erebus Motorsports’ Cooper Murray who gained six spots to 12th.

At the head of the field, Payne began to stretch his legs and by the time Wood pitted out of second, his lead was out to five seconds.

Anton De Pasquale was the first to pit on Lap 12 for rears from seventh. Kostecki and Allen pitted a lap later – Kostecki for rears, and all four for Allen.

A disastrous pit stop mistake for Kai Allen!!

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It was an agonisingly slow pit stop for Allen, whose pit stop took eight seconds longer than Kostecki’s.

Cooper Murray got turned into a spin at Turn 4 when Aaron Cameron drove into the side of the Erebus Motorsport Camaro. Cameron was duly given a 15-second time penalty and wound up finishing 21st while Murray was 18th.

Wood pitted on Lap 16 returned just a car length ahead of Feeney.

Will Brown, who started 16th, suffered a slow stop on the left rear when the pneumatic gun failed and force his pit crew to a back-up.

Come Lap 20, Payne pitted from the lead for rear tyres. Once he returned to the lead, his gap to Wood came down to 3.6 seconds.

Once the pit stops were completed, it was Payne from Wood, Feeney, Kostecki, and De Pasquale. Golding was sixth on four new tyres from Allen, Le Brocq, Waters, and Mostert.

On Lap 25, Wood relinquished second place to Feeney with a forceful pass at Carousel.

Track goes this way, fellas ⬅️

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There was drama on Lap 26 when Wood and Kostecki bowled a massive wide at Turn 3. Kostecki momentarily lost a position to De Pasquale, only for the Team 18 driver to outbrake himself at Turn 4 and give the positions straight back.

Golding began to reap the rewards of four new tyres, passing De Pasquale with nine laps to go and then Kostecki with eight remaining for fourth.

The final few laps were a frenetic affair. While Payne was streaks ahead of the rest, Golding marched forward and displaced Wood with two laps to go to get himself on the podium.

Kostecki survived an overheating engine from his off-track moment that filled the front of his car with debris to claim fifth.

De Pasquale held on to sixth despite pitting the earliest of any top 10 driver. Allen was seventh, Waters eighth, Le Brocq ninth and Rylan Gray a standout, career-best 10th for Dick Johnson Racing.

Supercars continues on Sunday with qualifying at 9:50am AEST and the Top 10 Shootout immediately afterwards at 10:45am AEST. Race 4 of the weekend, a 200km feature, starts at 1:05pm AEST.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship ITM Christchurch Super440, Race 3