Matt Payne’s hopes of claiming the Supercars Sprint Cup came to a heartbreaking end at Queensland Raceway, with a mechanical failure forcing the Kiwi out of the Ipswich Super 440 finale as Broc Feeney went on to take both the race win and the title.
Payne entered the 200km Race 28 as the Sprint Cup championship leader but faced a tougher task after qualifying sixth on the grid. Fellow New Zealanders Andre Heimgartner and Ryan Wood started 12th and 17th respectively.
Will Brown secured pole position alongside Triple Eight teammate Feeney, while Kai Allen qualified third after showing strong pace throughout the session. Brodie Kostecki started fourth, with Chaz Mostert alongside Payne on the third row.
Brown and Feeney went side-by-side through the opening corners, with Brown initially holding the advantage before Feeney fought back to take the lead. Allen joined the battle but settled into third ahead of Kostecki and Payne, while Mostert slipped to sixth.
Further back, Heimgartner made one of the strongest starts in the field, gaining three positions on the opening lap to move into ninth. Wood remained 17th as he battled through the midfield.
Feeney soon began to establish himself at the front, opening a 3.8-second advantage over Brown before the first round of pit stops.
Allen was the first of the leading group to stop on Lap 17, with Wood also making his first visit to pit lane. Brown responded one lap later and emerged ahead of Allen, while Feeney stayed out until Lap 22.
The strategy worked for the race leader, with Feeney returning to the track ahead of both Brown and Allen.
Once the opening pit cycle had played out, Feeney held a 5.8-second advantage at the front on Lap 30 of 62. Brown ran second ahead of Allen, Kostecki and Payne, with Cameron Waters, James Golding, Anton De Pasquale, David Reynolds and Rylan Gray completing the top 10.
Heimgartner sat just outside that group in 11th, while Wood had climbed to 15th.
Just three laps later, Payne’s race — and ultimately his Sprint Cup challenge — unravelled.
The Kiwi was forced into the garage on Lap 33 after his car developed a mechanical problem, with the engine reportedly dropping a cylinder and losing power. Attempts to resolve the issue proved unsuccessful, and by Lap 38 Payne was out of the car and officially retired.
It was a brutal end to a Sprint Cup campaign that had seen Payne put himself in championship-winning contention heading into the final race.
With Payne out, the title swung firmly towards Feeney, who needed to finish third or better to secure the Sprint Cup.
At the front, Feeney remained in control following the second round of pit stops, although Kostecki began to apply pressure in the closing stages. A gap that had previously sat at around seven seconds was reduced to just two with seven laps remaining.
Brown held third but was more than eight seconds behind Kostecki, while Allen ran fourth ahead of Golding, De Pasquale, Waters, Gray and Reynolds.
Wood had worked his way forward to 13th by the closing stages, with Heimgartner directly behind him in 14th as the two New Zealanders continued their fight through the midfield.
Despite Kostecki’s late charge, Feeney held on to win the final race of the Ipswich Super 440 and, with it, the Sprint Cup title.
The victory delivered some redemption for Feeney following the disappointment of narrowly missing out on the overall Supercars Championship last season, although the title-deciding retirement for Payne meant the Sprint Cup battle ended in cruel fashion for the Kiwi.
Kostecki crossed the line second, with Brown completing the podium in third to give Triple Eight two cars inside the top three.
Allen finished fourth ahead of Golding, De Pasquale, Waters, Gray, Reynolds and Aaron Cameron, who completed the top 10.
Wood was the best of the finishing Kiwis in 13th, one position ahead of Heimgartner in 14th, while Payne was left with a DNF and the disappointment of seeing his Sprint Cup campaign come to an abrupt end.
Supercars now turns its attention to the endurance portion of the season, with the Enduro Championship beginning at The Bend Motorsport Park from September 11-13.
For Payne, however, the Ipswich weekend will be a difficult one to forget. After carrying the Sprint Cup lead into the finale, a single mechanical failure brought his title bid to an agonising end just when it mattered most.
Header Image: Grove Racing
