Broc Feeney has reclaimed the Supercars championship lead with victory in a dramatic third race of the Melbourne SuperSprint as rival Matt Payne copped a big setback.
Triple Eight Racing star Feeney led the in-form Brodie Kostecki and Cam Waters home for an all-Ford podium on Saturday night at Albert Park.
In one of several flashpoints of the third race of the weekend, Kostecki and Feeney made contact on the 12th lap, forcing Feeney to dart across the grass.
But he was able to retain his lead, and ultimately hold out a late challenge from Kostecki to deny the Dick Johnson Racing star a third straight victory of the weekend.
"I'm not silly, he's been making passes all week into (turn) 11, so I had to make sure I was covering him down there," Feeney said.
"Racing with Brodie is always really good. You know it's going to be a hard race but I'm stoked we walked away with a win."
Feeney's win proved even more valuable after Payne suffered a triple-puncture on the second corner of the race, as a result of tangling with James Golding.
Payne's early exit cost him his 30-point championship lead, with the Grove Racing driver now back in third and Kostecki moving up to second.
In a sign of things to come, the safety car was first brought out when Cooper Murray became the innocent victim of a battle between James Le Brocq and Will Brown.
Shortly after the restart, Thomas Randle and Ryan Wood then clashed for a second time in the day.
With Wood having hit the side of Randle's car in qualifying, the two collided again in the race with Randle ending up in the wall and Wood getting a 30-second penalty.
If the contact was deja vu for Randle, the same could be said for Aaron Cameron, who spun around for a third time this weekend.
After starting the race in second, Cameron was first overtaken by Kostecki when the 28-year-old sent one down the inside of him in turn 11.
Cameron and Brown then clashed following the second safety car, with both going off track and needing to head to the pit lane.
The incident ruined Cameron's race, with Brown already having been served a 30-second penalty over the incident that ruined Murray's race.
The penalty is the fourth of Wood's nightmare 2026 campaign, leaving Triple Eight Racing's Brown down in 15th in the championship and facing a near-impossible task to reclaiming the driver's title he won in 2024.
Meanwhile, Waters had to fight hard to finish on the podium for Tickford Racing, briefly losing position to Kai Allen on the penultimate lap before reclaiming third spot.
