It was a hard-fought race for the Kiwi contingent in Melbourne, where late braking moves were rewarded with a podium for Matthew Payne.
In a hot first lap scuffle, Payne was able to get past James Golding in a decisive move to end the first lap in third. Ryan Wood moved down a position to tenth, while Andre Heimgartner fell three places to thirteenth.
Looking racy of the start, Payne was able to make light work of getting past Broc Feeney by making a divebomb before the final straight to move into second with fifteen laps to go.
At the same time, Wood put his head down and stuck with the drivers ahead to form a train, looking to make moves forward later on.
The race was turned on its head after Jackson Walls took a holiday to the Turn 10/11 gravel trap, where a safety car was called to retrieve the #11 Ford.
Due to time constraints at the event, the race distance was reduced by two laps to a seventeen lap sprint. Kostecki led the field to green on lap 10 but wasn’t given any time to breathe by Payne, Feeney and Golding, who all ran with him through the first sector.
For the second weekend in a row, Aaron Cameron found himself facing the wrong way as he found himself being turned at turn 5.
Wood made good use of the condensed field to climb up to eighth in the first green lap, while Heimgartner held position in thirteenth, dealing with significant pressure from David Reynolds.
With seven laps to go, Payne remained four tenths behind race leader Kostecki. With four laps to go, a fast charging Kai Allen got past Heimgartner to move the Kiwi down into fourteenth.
Payne was afforded some breathing room towards the last lap with a battle pack forming behind. Although he was able to close up to the rear bumper of Kostecki, he wasn’t able to make the pass as he finished four and a half tenths behind him at the line. After entering the race joint top of the championship leader, his result meant he climbs to the top of the championship ladder.
Kostecki’s win meant Ford broke their six-year drought of being winless at Albert Park.
Wood was able to climb two places overall to finish seventh, while Heimgartner finished off a busy day on-track with a fourteenth place finish.
On track action resumes with Race 5 tomorrow, kicking off at 7:30pm NZST (6th March)
