After a mixed race for the Kiwi trio in Race 11 earlier this morning, combined with a Kiwi front row lockout for this race, it was set to be a thriller from the drop of the green flag.
On the formation lap, Andre Heimgartner reported engine issues to his team. He said there were issues upon startup, but the team told him to start the race nonetheless and that they would manage what they could. He rebooted the car later in the lap and made the start in position.
With a Kiwi front row, Matthew Payne was able to leave his gremlins from his Race 11 start behind and was able to get the jump on Ryan Wood. Broc Feeney was able to jump three places up to third, demoting this morning’s race winner, Brodie Kostecki, down to fourth.
After his rocky formation lap, Heimgartner fell down to fifteenth, and was in the thick of a very big battle.
By the fourth lap, Payne had run away, with a lead of over a second and a half over Wood, who also held a comfortable lead over Feeney. The race stagnated from here, with Payne, Wood, and Feeney comfortably sitting at the front.
Meanwhile, it was guns out at the back of the field, with five drivers in a ding-dong battle for twentieth position. Ultimately, Zach Bates would hold that position.
The gap between Payne and Wood had extended out to 3.3 seconds by lap thirteen. Kostecki and Allen both headed into the lane on lap fourteen, but a costly error in the Grove garage cost Allen crucial time. Both wheel changers on the left-hand side got confused about the order and ran in opposite directions when Allen entered the lane.
Wood locked up into his pit box on lap sixteen, and he emerged marginally ahead of Feeney. It was a close battle between them, but Wood was able to keep clear while his tyres warmed up.
Payne pitted for two tyres and fuel on lap twenty. He re-emerged 3.7 seconds ahead of Wood and Feeney, with Kostecki closing in behind. At the same time, Heimgartner managed to cycle up to second by extending his stint, and he eventually headed into the lane on lap twenty-three.
On lap twenty-five, Feeney was able to close up to Wood after Wood ran wide on turn seven, and after some door-to-door action, was able to get past. Soon after, Kostecki closed up to the back of Wood but both drivers ran extremely wide, sending gravel everywhere over turn three. This gave Wood some breathing room while Kostecki dropped back into the hands of Anton De Pasquale.
With ten laps to go, Payne held a lead of 7.8 seconds over Feeney, with Wood trailing the Triple 888 driver by 1.4 seconds. James Golding was able to get past De Pasquale to get into fifth and soon moved into fourth. Heimgartner had fallen to fifteenth.
By lap thirty-one, Payne soon had his lead out to 9.3 seconds. The gap between third-placed Wood and fourth-placed Golding had come down to just over a second, with Golding’s four fresh tyres at the last stop starting to pay off.
Messages started to come through that Kostecki was nursing a potential engine issue, and that he needed to nurse the car home.
Golding had closed the gap to Wood to a car length with three laps to go, and was able to get a run onto the start/finish straight to get past the Walkinshaw driver with two to go.
Extraordinarily, Payne was able to extend his gap to second to 11.8 seconds to take home a very comfortable home victory. Feeney and Golding also took home silverware, while Wood finished a second off the podium in fourth. After his engine issues, Heimgartner came home in fifteenth.
Wood still holds the lead in the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, with one more race to be run.
Qualifying for Race 13 takes place at 11:50am NZST, followed by a top-10 shootout at 12:45pm NZST.
