The two Ford drivers were engaged in a heated battle for the lead on the second lap of the Saturday evening race when they came to blows at the final corner.

Payne had got past Waters at Turn 11 before Waters got into Payne’s rear bumper at Turn 13.

Payne then swung across on Waters as the pair approached the final corner, with both Mustangs ending up in the wall.

A furious Waters, debuting a brand new car this weekend, immediately confronted Payne before the Kiwi had even got out of his own wrecked Mustang.

Speaking to the broadcast a few moments later, a fired-up Waters questioned Payne’s spatial awareness.

“I was going to try and get him back into Turn 12 and it didn’t happen,” said Waters.

“In [turn] 13 he choked it up and I got into the back of him and got under him and, yeah, I was trying to set him up for the last corner and he’s just come across.

“I don’t know if he didn’t see I was there, but if he didn’t see I was there it’s pretty bad spatial awareness.

“[It is] really bad. A brand new car put in the wall. His thing has got damage as well. It’s just shit, mate.”

Waters then took aim at Supercars Media reporter Garth Tander, who was conducting the interview, with a reference to comments made by Tander that were critical of Waters’ attitude after the season-opening Bathurst 500.

“I didn’t really look at the car,” he said after Tander asked if he’d been able to survey the damage.

“I was too busy trying to get to his door to have a talk to him. The boys will fix her up all night, I’ve got an amazing crew. I’ll pick my bottom lip up and try again tomorrow, hey Garth..”

Payne also told the broadcast his side of the story, admitting that he didn’t know that Waters was on the outside after the Tickford driver had hit him on the way into turn 13.

“I was just trying to race pretty fairly, I thought,” he said. “I didn’t really think there was any reason to hit me off at the second to last corner, to be honest with you.

“I was trying to open the last corner to give myself the best run onto the straight and he was there. I didn’t even know he was there.

“It’s unfortunate, we were in a really good position to win the race. It’s disappointing, but it is what it is.

“You’re always going to have races like this where it’s unfortunate that you have an incident. But we’re working well together, the whole team is getting behind each other. There’s some really good momentum going on at the moment, with the pole and starting second tomorrow, so we need to forget about today and focus on tomorrow.”

Broc Feeney went on to lead a Triple Eight one-two ahead of teammate Will Brown with Chaz Mostert finishing third.