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Supercars Townsville: Payne wins strategic Race 2 battle, Brown last

New Zealander Matt Payne used a three-stop strategy to place the Grove Racing Ford Mustang at the front of the field with 22 of the 88 laps remaining, to take his second career Supercars win, and first of the 2024 season.

The 21-year-old was the first of the drivers to make a pitstop, committing him to a three-stop strategy, and he came home to win by 6.06s.

“We've had a tough couple of rounds lately and I knew we had a good race car yesterday,” said Payne, who started from 10th on the grid after a messy Shootout lap.

“We tried to replicate that with a different strategy from the team.

“We were pushing the whole way, tough work but very rewarding. To get a win here boosts the morale half-way through the season.”

The battle for second place saw a replay of Saturday's fight for the win, with Cam Waters (Tickford Ford) and Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford) duking it out with different strategies. Waters pitted twice while Mostert followed the Payne plan with three stops, picking his way past six cars (from eighth on the grid) to move to second within a dozen laps.

The two ran line astern over the last 15 laps, but Waters held to take second.

“It was a great day for us and a great weekend for the team, but no chance we were going to match Matty on the three-stop,” said Waters after a consistent weekend.

“I knew a few people would roll the dice and try it, but we stuck to our guns and stayed with [a two-stop strategy].

“It's always Chaz and I! I wish it was someone different, it was cool to battle Chaz again.”

Mostert said: “It was a good fightback. The first stint was a lot of fun and that put us into a position to fight for a podium. To get two podiums here is awesome, a big turnaround for us from Darwin.”

In a race dominated by Fords the sole Chevrolet to mount a challenge was surprise pole sitter Jack Le Brocq, who qualified fastest for the first time in his career, on his 32nd birthday. The Erebus Motorsport Camaro ran a two-stop strategy but in race pace he lacked the speed to challenge for the win.

Fifth was the consistent Thomas Randle, whose Tickford Mustang made a blinding getaway to run second early, ahead of Ryan Wood (Walkinshaw Andretti United), who drove a steady race to be the second Chevrolet driver on the road.

The disappointing weekend for Triple Eight continued. On the back of Will Brown's stellar recovery on Saturday, hopes were high on Sunday morning, but the points leader qualified four places lower than he did on Saturday, and started the race from 17th on the grid.

On the opening lap he tangled with David Reynolds (Team18 Chevrolet) and had to pit with front damage. He lost a lap and battled on to finish 24th and last, in a race with no retirements and no Safety Cars.

Teammate Broc Feeney qualified in sixth place but dropped back after brushing a wall on the opening lap, and he struggled home in seventh place, more than 30 seconds behind the winning Ford.

As a result, the 141-point lead Brown carried into the race has been slashed and he now leads the title race by 78 points from Feeney, 1515-1437. Mostert remains in third on 1341 while Waters moves up to 1126 points, but stays in fourth place. Payne is up to fifth on 1065 ahead of James Golding (PremiAir Chevrolet) on 980.

The next round for the Supercars will take place at Symmons Plains in Tasmania on 17-18 August, the challenge for the teams, after the heat and Saturday rain of northern Queensland, to deal with what is likely to be a stone cold track, with winter temperatures in Launceston dipping below zero in the last week.

Race results:

   
1
 - 
3
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver Car Laps Time Interval Retirement Points
1
M. Payne Penrite Racing
Ford Mustang GT 88

1:54'21.9164

    150
2 Australia C. Waters Monster Castrol Racing Ford Mustang GT 88

+6.0575

1:54'27.9739

6.0575   143
3 Australia C. Mostert Mobil 1 Optus Racing Ford Mustang GT 88

+7.6556

1:54'29.5720

1.5981   129
4 Australia J. Le Brocq Erebus Motorsport Penrite Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+15.1198

1:54'37.0362

7.4642   120
5 Australia T. Randle Monster Castrol Racing Ford Mustang GT 88

+16.4005

1:54'38.3169

1.2807   111
6
R. Wood Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing
Ford Mustang GT 88

+26.3506

1:54'48.2670

9.9501   102
7
B. Feeney Red Bull Ampol Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+27.0301

1:54'48.9465

0.6795   96
8 Australia M. Winterbottom DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+35.8572

1:54'57.7736

8.8271   90
9
C. Hill Tyrepower Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+37.4558

1:54'59.3722

1.5986   84
10 Australia J. Golding PremiAir Nulon Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+37.9764

1:54'59.8928

0.5206   78
11 New Zealand A. Heimgartner R&J Batteries Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+43.1021

1:55'05.0185

5.1257   72
12 Australia W. Davison Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang GT 88

+44.7869

1:55'06.7033

1.6848   69
13 Australia A. De Pasquale Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang GT 88

+45.5797

1:55'07.4961

0.7928   66
14 New Zealand R. Stanaway Penrite Racing Ford Mustang GT 88

+46.7513

1:55'08.6677

1.1716   63
15 Australia B. Fullwood Middy's Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+50.8336

1:55'12.7500

4.0823   60
16 Australia J. Courtney Snowy River Racing Ford Mustang GT 88

+55.7649

1:55'17.6813

4.9313   57
17 Australia T. Slade PremiAir Nulon Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+57.4938

1:55'19.4102

1.7289   54
18
B. Kostecki Erebus Motorsport Penrite
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+1'05.7918

1:55'27.7082

8.2980   51
19 Australia M. Jones Pizza Hut Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+1'06.4766

1:55'28.3930

0.6848   48
20 Australia N. Percat Bendix Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+1'06.6392

1:55'28.5556

0.1626   45
21 Australia J. Evans SCT Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 88

+1'09.5884

1:55'31.5048

2.9492   42
22 Australia D. Reynolds Tradie Beer Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 87

+1 Lap

1:54'22.3157

1 Lap   39
23
A. Love Brad Jones Racing
Ford Mustang GT 87

+1 Lap

1:55'03.6536

41.3379   36
24 Australia W. Brown Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 85

+3 Laps

1:54'36.0346

2 Laps   33
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