Matthew Payne may have faced a weekend of ups, downs, spins and slides but the young Kiwi eventually came out of it victorious after a chaotic race two on Sunday.
It was all going well for Payne come qualifying for race one after he stuck the #10 Grove Racing Nissan Altima on pole. That was up until he was handed with a three place grid penalty due to crossing the line under yellow flag conditions.
After starting race one in fourth, he quickly got up into third position when the green flag dropped.
On lap seven, Payne attempted a move up the inside of Matt Chahda for second but was squeezed, spinning Chahda and sending himself off track and rendering his race over.
It was a different story in race two though with Payne crossing the line in second but inheriting the win after Dean Fiore was penalised for being outside his grid box.
Starting race two in fourth, Payne quickly settled into second position by the first corner.
However, he quickly came under pressure on lap two with Thomas Maxwell having a look up the inside.
It then became a fairly steady race out front with Fiore leading, Payne in second and Chahda following a few seconds behind. However, all the action was happening in the mid field with a battle for the first of the top ten positions ensuing between six cars.
By lap 12, cars parked off track on the second bend warranted the deployment of the safety car so they could be cleared.
When the race resumed on lap 17 with the field now bunched up, Chahda was back on Payne’s tail.
The final lap is where it all went wrong for much of the field though after the track became littered with mud from competitors cutting the course on turn three.
Going into the bend, Super3 driver Jason Gomersall had crashed on the outside which saw three drivers end up nose-to-tail behind him and others facing backwards including would be third place sitter Chahda.
That left Fiore to cross the line in first, Payne in second and Jack Perkins in third.
However, Fiore’s penalty saw him drop to fifth while New Zealander Payne inherited the win. Perkins and Zak Best joined the Kiwi on the podium.
The win moves Payne from fifth to third in the Super2 championship standings, 150 points behind points leader Declan Fraser.
