It was another exciting 15-lap race for Supercars Race 6 tonight. Kiwi drivers Matthew Payne and Ryan Wood started in the Top 10, and it was a Triple Eight 1-2 with Will Brown and Broc Feeney taking off from the front row.
In a nail-biting first lap, Brown got the jump on pole-sitting teammate Feeney, with Percat slotting in behind. Grove Racing driver Matthew Payne was tagged by rookie Cooper Murray, who Will Davison had bumped going into Turn 1, causing Murray to tag Payne side-on, turning Payne around and dropping him down to 22nd.
Thomas Randle also had some heavy contact on Turn 1, resulting in front right damage to his Tickford Racing Ford Mustang GT.
David Reynolds and Bryce Fullwood had a big moment on Lap 1, making wheel-to-wheel contact. Fullwood got two rear wheels off the ground of his Chevrolet Camaro as Reynolds shunted him, with Reynolds left facing in the wrong direction. Thomas Randle and Aaron Cameron also went wide due to the incident.
In another incident on Lap 1, Walkinshaw Andretti driver Chaz Mostert took the inside line, making a pass on Cooper Murray. Murray locked up, sending Chaz flying into PremiAir racing driver James Golding. The two made heavy contact, sending Golding into the gravel trap on Turn 11, resulting in the first safety car of the race.
Chaz was later found guilty of careless driving and hit with 30 second-time penalty post-race.
The penalty dropped Mostert from seventh to 22nd in the provisional race classification, pending further investigation. Golding finished 23rd, a lap down.
At the front of the chaos were Brown, Feeney and Percat.
The race restarted on Lap 3, and the battles were underway, with Kiwi Richie Stanaway and Ryan Wood battling for 6th position. Wood made brief contact with Dick Johnson Racing driver Brodie Kostecki during the fight for 6th, coming away relatively unscathed.
Payne was fighting his way back through the field from 22nd; he sat in 20th position with Kiwi Jaxon Evans running in 17th and Andre Heimgartner in 18th.
By Lap 5, Stanaway had made up eight spots. Evans was up four, and Wood was up three spots.
Erebus Motorsport driver Cooper Murray went on an off-track excursion on Lap 7, flying through the gravel and hitting the wall at Turn 11 after reportedly having made contact with Brad Jones Racing driver Macauley Jones, ending in an early retirement for Murray, who was racing for 12th position at the time of the incident.
Lap 9 saw the race get back underway. Tickford Racing driver Cam Waters made gains, climbing nine places to 10th. Two Kiwis remained in the Top 10: Wood in 6th and Stanaway in 8th. Payne continued to claw his way back through the field, running in 16th, a 6-place improvement since his incident. Evans and Heimgartner were behind him in the 16th and 17th positions.
After two safety car delays, Supercars converted the race to a time-certain race with 3 minutes and 30 seconds left on the clock.
Heimgartner and Evans participated in an intense 8-car battle at the back of the field, involving Kai Allen, James Courtney, David Reynolds, Thomas Randle, Aaron Cameron, Jack Le Broq, and Bryce Fullwood—all within 1.5 seconds.
Further up the field, Stanaway, Hill and Payne were battling for points, fighting for that 10th spot.
Ryan Wood battled Will Davison for 5th place right to the end, racing bumper to bumper. Meanwhile, Cam Waters was up 10 spots in 9th, 0.443 seconds behind Anton De Pasquale.
In the race’s final lap, chaos struck Nick Percat as his power steering exploded, coming down into Turns 3 and 4. It was an impressive effort from Percat, who battled against Kostecki in the final lap. The two switched positions twice in the final corners, but Percat regained position and crossed the line in third, clinching his second podium.
“I wasn’t giving up, I thought we were going to win it,” Percat told Fox Sports.
“Took the restart, power steering was shot, so I just had to let Broc [Feeney] go and get clear air on the front of the car.
“But then with a lap to go it fully exploded and we did the last lap with no power steering. I over-and-undered Brodie with nothing, with my knees.
“I was not giving up, this far was 100 percent on the podium. Because we should have been in contention to win it.”
Ryan Wood is the top Kiwi of Race 6 with an honourable 6th-place finish. It was an excellent drive from the young Kiwi, who had his elbows out, fought his way to 6th from 9th, and nearly had Davison for 5th place.
Matthew Payne, with a proud fighting finish for the Kiwi driver as he fought his way from 22nd to finish 11th.
After a solid race, Richie Stanaway finished behind Payne in 12th place. Andre Heimgartner finished 16th, and Jaxon Evans finished in 19th place.
Will Brown charged his way through the race, clinching his first race win of the season in a bid to defend his Supercars title. Teammate Feeney held strong in 2nd place after getting the jump on Percat on the second race restart.
Incidents still under investigation include the Macauley Jones/Cooper Murray clash, which saw the latter taken out of the race, the Murray/Matt Payne Turn One incident, and the David Reynolds/Thomas Randle Turn Four clash.
Brown is now topping the championship points leaderboard with 462 points, with a gap of only 6 points between him and Waters. Feeney is in third place with 418 points, Chaz Mostert is fourth with 365 points, and Brodie Kostecki is fifth with 331 points. Payne is the top Kiwi on the leaderboard, sixth place, with 316 points.
It’s been one action-packed weekend for Supercars, with three races giving fans top-tier racing entertainment.
The fourth and final Supercars race will complete the 2025 Melbourne SuperSprint, with Race 7 kicking off at 12.25 pm NZT.
Header Image: Daniel Kalisz/ Race Project
