It was a race of two halves for Matthew Payne, Ryan Wood, and Andre Heimgartner, as Payne overcame a penalty to finish in the top four while Heimgartner battled through pit stop dramas, and Wood suffered a catastrophic failure.
At the start, Matt Payne made a false start and moved before the lights went out. He remained in third off the jump but moved up to second as he got past Brodie Kostecki.
Wood started to recover from his seventeenth position, moving in front of Heimgartner in fourteenth. Payne was awarded a five-second penalty for his false start, putting extra pressure on him and the team.
Wood then suffered a terrible few minutes on track, with heavy contact with Declan Frazer, then compounded with a catastrophic power steering failure, sending him into the grass and leaving his car leaking fluid.
The issue with Wood’s car meant he had to head into the lane, and ironically enough, Wood’s teammate Chaz Mostert was the only person caught out by the fluid from Wood’s car, sending him off the track and down the order.
At the front, Payne started to push to build a gap for his penalty, as he trailed Waters by half a second. After ten laps, Payne sat in second. Heimgartner in thirteenth, and Wood sat helpless in the lane.
Reports started to flow in that Wood’s car had a catastrophic failure, which would most likely leave him out of the remainder of the race. Meanwhile, Waters marginally led over Payne, Brodie Kostecki, Kai Allen, and Broc Feeney.
On lap twenty, Payne headed into the lane for his stop, while also serving his penalty. Heimgartner soon followed him in, with most of the field cycling in at this time.
Heimgartner suffered a slower-than-usual stop after a suspected rattle gun failure, leaving him stranded for a few seconds before heading out in traffic.
Waters soon headed into the pits and re-emerged right in front of Payne. Waters weaved right out in front of the Kiwi, as Payne was squeezed right to the edge of the track. Waters was able to keep in front, with the Kiwi unhappy about Waters pit exit.
Zach Bates was soon awarded a fifteen-second time penalty for causing a collision.
By lap thirty-three, the Grove cars swapped around, with Allen moving ahead of Payne to chase Waters. Allen soon started putting significant pressure on Waters, and he eventually cracked as Waters went wide through Turn 7, allowing the young Australian to go through.
Waters was soon issued a bad sportsman flag for moving under braking, and Payne was shown the same warning a few laps later. Meanwhile, Kostecki started putting pressure all over Payne, while giving him a few nudges for his efforts.
Heimgartner decided to change strategy and came into the lane on lap fourty-four, with a flawless pit stop.
At the same time, Payne was instructed to keep as close to Allen as possible and came into the lane soon after. He took tyres and fuel, and came out in clean air.
Kostecki pitted on lap forty-seven, and re-emerged right in front of Payne, but with enough room to jump him on pit cycle.
Waters soon headed in, and Allen covered him off a few laps later. Allen was able to jump Waters in the lane by underfuelling by a margin, relying on fuel saving to get him to the end.
Allen started to stretch his lead out on Waters, with both Grove Racing cars trading fastest laps as Payne chased Kostecki.
With twenty laps to go, Payne sat in fourth while Heimgartner kept his quiet race going in fifteenth.
As the laps counted down, second to fourth started to close up as Kostecki started to put pressure on Waters. At the same time, Payne was lapping a second a lap quicker than the pair of them, and they closed up with five to go.
Payne was unable to catch Kostecki and Waters and his teammate Allen drove away to comfortably win the race.
Heimgartner came home in fourteenth, keeping it clean after his slow stop put him down the order.
Supercars will be on track tomorrow at 11:35am for Qualifying.
