Brodie Kostecki and Matt Payne took a win apiece on Saturday on the second day of Supercars racing at Ruapuna Park near Christchurch in New Zealand.
Kostecki took the opening 37-lap sprint race, but everyone had to give best to Grove Racing’s Payne in the second encounter, as he dominated the race to lead home Triple Eight Ford’s Broc Feeney.
The first Saturday race was a reverse image of Friday’s encounter – this time, Kostecki seizing the lead and Grove’s Kai Allen not being able to find a way around him. That was how they finished, with Wood taking third from the Triple Eight Fords of Will Brown and Feeney, and Team 18’s Anton De Pasquale in the first of the Chevrolet Camaros.
The battle between Brown and Feeney was aided by Brown undercutting his team-mate and taking the position.
It was a disaster for Payne, who lost a wheel on the track and had to recover to make it to 19th, but he cleared out in the second race with a comfortable victory. The fight for second place featured Wood and Kostecki, until both went off at the same corner, and Feeney, who made ground from sixth on the grid, blasted by to take second and somewhat right the Triple Eight ship.
“What a turnaround,” Payne said after his first win of the season, with a dominant 11.6431s victory. “Our car has been so fast all day, to get the win this afternoon has been so worth it. I thought we were going to get there in the first race but fortunately we got there in the second. I didn’t get it right the first couple of starts but I finally got it done.”
Feeney was a happy man with second: “It’s been such a challenging weekend. These guys are on fire this weekend, to be able to take it to then is great but Matty is on another planet. I am a long way from where we want to be but we are slowly getting on top of it.”
There was a great battle for third in the second race, with Wood eventually giving way to the Blanchard Racing Team Ford of James Golding, who was assisted by taking four tyres during his pitstop. He raced his way past Wood with three laps to go, to give BRT a welcome podium finish.
“It felt pretty good at the start and I knew we were in the mix,” he said. “The car kept getting better during the race. Head down, the car was unbelievable. I had a couple of moments after I got Brodie but I kept going and fortunately, got the result.”
The best of the Chevrolet Camaro drivers was, once again, De Pasquale, with a second sixth place, while the second race might have been an even better one for Grove Racing, but at Allen’s second stop, his team appeared to have a change of mind about whether they were changing the front or the rear first, losing 9s to Kostecki, who pitted at the same time.
Allen came home seventh ahead of Cam Waters, the Tickford Ford driver recovering after continuing his trend of not qualifying inside the top 10 in any of the six races in New Zealand held so far.
Supercars champion Chaz Mostert had a difficult Saturday, adding only and 13th and a 12th to his eighth place on Friday in the other Walkinshaw TWG Toyota.
The Supercars action will return to the Christchurch track on Sunday, for a single, 61-lap race.
Supercars Christchurch - Race 2 results
| Cla | Driver | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | Retirement | Points | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
B. Kostecki Dick Johnson Racing
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
52'23.9612 |
|||||||
| 2 |
K. Allen Grove Racing
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+0.5980 52'24.5592 |
0.5980 | ||||||
| 3 |
R. Wood Walkinshaw TWG Racing
|
Toyota GR Supra | 37 |
+8.6113 52'32.5725 |
8.0133 | ||||||
| 4 |  W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering |
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+9.0022 52'32.9634 |
0.3909 | ||||||
| 5 |
B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+10.1591 52'34.1203 |
1.1569 | ||||||
| 6 | A. De Pasquale Team 18 |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+18.7212 52'42.6824 |
8.5621 | ||||||
| 7 | C. Waters Tickford Racing |
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+20.4267 52'44.3879 |
1.7055 | ||||||
| 8 |
J. Ojeda PremiAir Racing
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+21.0234 52'44.9846 |
0.5967 | ||||||
| 9 |
A. Cameron Blanchard Racing Team
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+22.1782 52'46.1394 |
1.1548 | ||||||
| 10 |
Z. Bates Matt Stone Racing
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+23.0178 52'46.9790 |
0.8396 | ||||||
| 11 |
R. Gray Dick Johnson Racing
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+27.0292 52'50.9904 |
4.0114 | ||||||
| 12 | J. Le Brocq Matt Stone Racing |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+29.7732 52'53.7344 |
2.7440 | ||||||
| 13 | C. Mostert Walkinshaw TWG Racing |
Toyota GR Supra | 37 |
+37.1639 53'01.1251 |
7.3907 | ||||||
| 14 | T. Randle Tickford Racing |
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+37.9670 53'01.9282 |
0.8031 | ||||||
| 15 | J. Golding Blanchard Racing Team |
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+38.6081 53'02.5693 |
0.6411 | ||||||
| 16 |
C. Murray Erebus Motorsport Penrite
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+39.3197 53'03.2809 |
0.7116 | ||||||
| 17 |
J. Stewart Erebus Motorsport Penrite
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+43.9019 53'07.8631 |
4.5822 | ||||||
| 18 | M. Jones Brad Jones Racing |
Toyota GR Supra | 37 |
+44.5777 53'08.5389 |
0.6758 | ||||||
| 19 |
M. Payne Grove Racing
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+45.1433 53'09.1045 |
0.5656 | ||||||
| 20 |
D. Fraser PremiAir Racing
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+48.4763 53'12.4375 |
3.3330 | ||||||
| 21 | D. Reynolds Team 18 |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+51.7340 53'15.6952 |
3.2577 | ||||||
| 22 |
J. Walls Triple Eight Race Engineering
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+57.1653 53'21.1265 |
5.4313 | ||||||
| 23 |  A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing |
Toyota GR Supra | 31 |
+6 Laps 53'31.0999 |
6 Laps | ||||||
| 24 |
C. Hill Brad Jones Racing
|
Toyota GR Supra | 30 |
+7 Laps 52'25.3532 |
1 Lap | ||||||
| View full results | |||||||||||
Supercars Christchurch - Race 3 results
| Cla | Driver | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | Retirement | Points | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
M. Payne Grove Racing
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
52'13.6979 |
|||||||
| 2 |
B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+11.6431 52'25.3410 |
11.6431 | ||||||
| 3 | J. Golding Blanchard Racing Team |
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+14.1640 52'27.8619 |
2.5209 | ||||||
| 4 |
R. Wood Walkinshaw TWG Racing
|
Toyota GR Supra | 37 |
+15.4382 52'29.1361 |
1.2742 | ||||||
| 5 |
B. Kostecki Dick Johnson Racing
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+18.4086 52'32.1065 |
2.9704 | ||||||
| 6 | A. De Pasquale Team 18 |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+19.8903 52'33.5882 |
1.4817 | ||||||
| 7 |
K. Allen Grove Racing
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+20.1482 52'33.8461 |
0.2579 | ||||||
| 8 | C. Waters Tickford Racing |
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+20.6117 52'34.3096 |
0.4635 | ||||||
| 9 | J. Le Brocq Matt Stone Racing |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+20.9185 52'34.6164 |
0.3068 | ||||||
| 10 |
R. Gray Dick Johnson Racing
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+23.0623 52'36.7602 |
2.1438 | ||||||
| 11 |
J. Ojeda PremiAir Racing
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+26.2318 52'39.9297 |
3.1695 | ||||||
| 12 | C. Mostert Walkinshaw TWG Racing |
Toyota GR Supra | 37 |
+28.4276 52'42.1255 |
2.1958 | ||||||
| 13 | W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering |
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+31.7173 52'45.4152 |
3.2897 | ||||||
| 14 |
Z. Bates Matt Stone Racing
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+31.9609 52'45.6588 |
0.2436 | ||||||
| 15 | A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing |
Toyota GR Supra | 37 |
+32.8713 52'46.5692 |
0.9104 | ||||||
| 16 |
C. Hill Brad Jones Racing
|
Toyota GR Supra | 37 |
+35.8249 52'49.5228 |
2.9536 | ||||||
| 17 | T. Randle Tickford Racing |
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+45.4463 52'59.1442 |
9.6214 | ||||||
| 18 |
C. Murray Erebus Motorsport Penrite
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+46.7109 53'00.4088 |
1.2646 | ||||||
| 19 | D. Reynolds Team 18 |
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+47.7836 53'01.4815 |
1.0727 | ||||||
| 20 |
J. Stewart Erebus Motorsport Penrite
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+48.0129 53'01.7108 |
0.2293 | ||||||
| 21 |
A. Cameron Blanchard Racing Team
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+51.7418 53'05.4397 |
3.7289 | ||||||
| 22 |
D. Fraser PremiAir Racing
|
Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 37 |
+59.7682 53'13.4661 |
8.0264 | ||||||
| 23 | M. Jones Brad Jones Racing |
Toyota GR Supra | 37 |
+1'00.7988 53'14.4967 |
1.0306 | ||||||
| 24 |
J. Walls Triple Eight Race Engineering
|
Ford Mustang S650 | 37 |
+1'03.8714 53'17.5693 |
3.0726 | ||||||
| View full results | |||||||||||
