Race 2 qualifying kicked off in chaotic fashion after rain that was not forecast until the end of the first elimination session arrived with six minutes to go.. This meant that it was pivotal for drivers to bank a lap early before more rain appeared.
Matt Payne set a lap early to sit fifth at the time of rainfall, with Andre Heimgartner in tenth and Ryan Wood sitting on the cut line. With little rainfall and a hot track temperature, drivers like Chaz Mostert begged their teams to stay out on track to follow the track evolution.
Wood went to the top of the timesheets with a 1.28.715, and was quickly eclipsed by compatriot Payne with a 1.28.638, nine places ahead of Heimgartner in fourteenth with a 1.28.886, meaning all three Kiwis advanced to the next session.
With the bottom 5 eliminated in session one and only the top ten making it through to the shootout, most drivers, bar Payne, elected to head out early to set a banker lap in case of rain.
After the first set of flyers, Heimgarter would be leading the Kiwi charge in ninth with a 1.28.478, ahead of Wood below the cut line in fourteenth with a 1.28.651.
Payne left it with a minute to go to set a lap, and slotted into fifth with a 1.28.251. Payne would finish the session in ninth, one place ahead of Wood in tenth, four thousandths above the cut line. Heimgartner finished down below the cut line and will be starting the race in fourteenth.
The Top Ten shootout started with Wood out on track first due to his finishing position in session two, where he lodged a 1.28.355. This was quickly eclipsed by Payne with a 1.28.302, and all eyes then turned to the weather forecast, with rain imminent.
The rain soon arrived, which was to the advantage of the early runners. Anton de Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki set faster laps than the two Kiwis, but with rain falling, laps set later in the session yielded no faster times, meaning Payne and Wood would share the second row for the 52-lap race.
Race two exploded into action, with cars running side-by-side from the very first lap.
Payne held onto third place while Wood got caught up in a tight battle in the midfield, being escorted slightly wide, which left him three places down from the start at the end of the first lap in seventh. While this happened, Heimgartner made steady progress to climb into twelfth place.
By lap six, Grove Racing signalled their quiet confidence, telling Payne over the radio his pace was strong and that if he stayed the course, the race would come to him.
Unfortunately, the race went away from Heimgartner through no fault of his own when an engine failure on lap ten brought out the safety car. This saw Payne become the first Kiwi to come into the pit lane, electing for two rear tyres and fuel in what was a rather clunky stop by Grove Racing.
One lap later, Wood also pitted, rejoining in sixth place. Supercars rookie Jayden Ojeda fell foul of the racing gods while entering the fast lane in the pits, where he saw his race evaporate with a runaway wheel.
Racing resumed on lap 15 with elbows out, as drivers embraced the ‘rubbin’ is racin’ mentality — launching bold divebombs, running door-to-door and constantly shuffling positions. Meanwhile, race leader Anton De Pasquale stretched his advantage at the front.
Payne was the first of the lead pack to take his second compulsory stop, with a focus on using the undercut to gain time on exit, as seen by Race 1 winner Broc Feeney yesterday.
Grove Racing elected to do a full four tyre stop with fuel to push to the max in the dying stages. Wood followed in a lap later in a similar fashion. With ten laps to go, Payne sat in second place with Wood holding onto sixth place.
A hard-charging Brodie Kostecki, recovering from a difficult opening stint and armed with a tyre advantage in the closing laps, swept past Payne at Turn 1 on lap 46 before setting off in pursuit of Anton De Pasquale.
With two laps remaining, the simmering rivalry between Broc Feeney and Ryan Wood reignited in fierce fashion — heavy bumper-to-bumper contact and uncompromising door-to-door racing. Feeney muscled Wood wide out of Turn 2 and, with fresher rubber beneath him, completed the move just a handful of corners later.
The late-race shuffle ultimately cemented Payne’s third-place finish — his first podium of the season — while Wood brought his GR Supra home seventh as the leading Toyota.
Out front, it was Team 18’s De Pasquale who held firm for victory, with Kostecki falling just two-and-a-half tenths short of completing a remarkable recovery drive.
Supercars get back out on track for Race 3 Qualifying at 2:05pm tomorrow (22nd February) NZST.
Header Image: Walkinshaw TWG Racing
