The championship hunt has well and truly begun for Matthew Payne as he works to overturn a 132 point deficit this weekend to take the Super2 crown.
The 20-year-old has qualified second for tomorrow’s Race 1 and sixth for Sunday’s Race 2 to ensure he’ll be up with the front runners.
It won’t be an easy task for Payne to take the crown, series leader Declan Fraser mastering the circuit to take pole position for both races.
The Australian enters the round with a 75 point buffer over second placed Zak Best and 132 over Payne. He’s set himself up perfectly to close out the title, but, as seen in previous editions, Adelaide is a circuit which can throw a spanner into the works.
Things were tight in the early afternoon qualifying session, Fraser laying down a 1min 20.376sec in the mid-stages to break the previous track record set by Thomas Randle in 2020.
He continued to lap with pace, getting close to eclipsing his time but not managing to do so.
It was the Kiwi who pounced late, a 1min 20.400sec narrowly missing top spot by just .02 of a second. Best will start just behind in third.
Sunday will be a harder day for Payne, managing only sixth fastest with a number of quick drivers ahead.
It was Fraser again who took top spot, absolutely crushing his previous lap record to be the first Super2 driver to ever go under the 1min 20sec mark at the circuit.
His 1min 19.638sec is the new benchmark, however pole was tighter than that time suggests, with six others, including Payne, going under the pole sitting time from the first qualifying session.
Fraser will have Best for company on the front row on Sunday whilst Matt Chada, Cameron Hill and Thomas Maxwell are the others who out-qualified Payne.
Saturday’s 19-lap race begins at 4.25pm (NZ time) whilst Sunday’s 19-lapper is at 3.55pm.
You can follow Payne’s quest for the title live on Sky Sport 5.
