But team boss Stephen Grove is not hiding his expectations for 2026 as the team aims to take the next step and become champions.
“Honestly, anything but a win is now a failure for us, so we’ve got to continue to work hard and tick everything off and continue to grow as a team,” he said.
Teammate Kai Allen suffered a literal failure in the final race – his hopes of a maiden win felled by a broken tie-rod less than 10 laps from home.
It was a failure the team put down to an opening lap bumping duel with Feeney.
Allen had a slow start to the weekend before starring in the final, briefly taking the lead from the Triple Eight driver with a daring overtake in slippery conditions.
“We’ve got two really good young drivers in Matty Payne and Kai Allen, so to finish where we did is a positive outcome considering we didn’t have a great weekend,” Grove added.
“It’s satisfying to have Matty equal top in the championship, but it’s very early days.
“Now we’re excited to be heading to the Grand Prix as we have fast cars and we’ve done well there in the past.’
Allen’s Sunday form delivered on expectations that Grove now has two genuine winning threats in its stable.
“It’s great to have two cars that have been really fast over the weekend,” said Payne following his second place in the Sunday race.
“I just didn’t quite have the race pace [on Sunday], so we’ll look at that, but he obviously had a really fast car, so a good data point to go off there.
“He’s doing a killer job and hopefully we can truck on like we’re doing for the rest of the year.”
Allen made the Grand Final in his rookie 2025 season by narrowly scraping through the various cut-offs after Bathurst, the Gold Coast and Sandown.
By contrast, Payne was second to Feeney in the Sprint Cup, won the Enduro Cup and scored the second-most points across the full season with five race victories.
Damage incurred in an unnecessary fight with Cam Waters while set to advance through Sandown, though, ended his title hopes.
“Last year we did quite a good job as a team and I just had a bad day when I shouldn’t have and didn’t have the points to advance,” said Payne.
“I don’t think we need to change our approach for this year. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing and trying to win races.
“That’s what we’re here to do and what’s going to give us the most points.”
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