Payne topped all three legs of qualifying, culminating in a 1:20.9824s in the Top 10 Shootout.
It’s his sixth Supercars pole position, third this year, and second at the Christchurch Super440.
“It’s been so cool,” said Payne.
“We’ve had a ripper race car all weekend and now we’ve just been tuning it yesterday.
“Obviously had really good pace in the last race and I was able to pull away. Then today, it’s been on rails again.
“We’ve been able to do the laps consistently and have margin as well. Just super stoked.”
Anton De Pasquale was the standout for Team 18 as he surged from sixth to second with a time 0.1469s adrift of Payne.
“From where we were yesterday in qualifying 17th on that tyre and not having too much direction with it to turn it around and be on the front row today is awesome,” said De Pasquale.
“Car hooked up. We were getting better with every run and every change. We’ll see what that translates to in the race.
“Matt’s lap was super. You could tell as soon as he got through Turn 1 and Turn 2 his thing was hooked up and ready to go. Happy to make up some spots and be in the fight.”
Having qualified eighth provisionally, Ryan Wood also made headway in his Walkinshaw TWG Racing Toyota Supra to qualify third.
“We made a big swing at that mid-session and it really paid off,” said Wood.
Will Brown and Broc Feeney traded places in fourth and fifth respectively for Triple Eight Race Engineering.
Grove Racing’s Kai Allen improved one place to sixth while Dick Johnson Racing driver Brodie Kostecki slipped from third to seventh.
Cameron Waters improved two places for Tickford Racing to eighth.
The Top 10 Shootout promised so much for the Blanchard Racing Team, though the Ford squad wound up locking out the fifth row.
Aaron Cameron’s time was only good enough for ninth while teammate James Golding slumped from second provisionally to 10th after he locked up and went off at Turn 2.
Race 4 of the Christchurch Super440, the feature 61-lap race, gets underway at 1:05pm AEST.
Results: Repco Supercars Championship ITM Christchurch Super440, Race 4 Top 10 Shootout
| Pos | Num | Driver | Team | Car | Lap | Diff | Gap |
| 1 | 19 | Matthew Payne | Grove Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 1:20.9824 | ||
| 2 | 18 | Anton De Pasquale | Team 18 | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 1:21.1293 | 0.1469 | 0.1469 |
| 3 | 2 | Ryan Wood | Walkinshaw TWG Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | 1:21.1295 | 0.1471 | 0.0002 |
| 4 | 888 | William Brown | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford Mustang GT | 1:21.1913 | 0.2089 | 0.0618 |
| 5 | 88 | Broc Feeney | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford Mustang GT | 1:21.1990 | 0.2166 | 0.0077 |
| 6 | 26 | Kai Allen | Grove Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 1:21.3384 | 0.3560 | 0.1394 |
| 7 | 17 | Brodie Kostecki | Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 1:21.3861 | 0.4037 | 0.0477 |
| 8 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Tickford Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 1:21.3991 | 0.4167 | 0.0130 |
| 9 | 3 | Aaron Cameron | Blanchard Racing Team | Ford Mustang GT | 1:21.4722 | 0.4898 | 0.0731 |
| 10 | 7 | James Golding | Blanchard Racing Team | Ford Mustang GT | 1:45.8829 | 24.9005 | 24.4107 |
Discussion about this post