Grove Racing star Matt Payne has continued his surge towards the Supercars Sprint Cup crown with victory in the opening leg of the Perth Super440 to extend his championship lead in a costly race for title rival Brodie Kostecki. <\/p>\n
After earlier securing a pair of pole positions for Saturday\u2019s back-to-back sprint races at Wanneroo Raceway, Payne survived a late safety car to continue his blistering mid-season run to convert in the first of two 50-lap battles.<\/p>\n
The Bathurst 1000 champion powered his Ford Mustang to a three-second win over fellow Kiwi and Walkinshaw TWG Racing driver Ryan Wood with Team 18\u2019s Anton De Pasquale completing the podium.<\/p>\n
After coughing up the race lead off the start line to Waters, Payne reclaimed the lead on lap six with an impressive move past the Tickford Racing driver at turn seven and was storming away until the safety car was called with 12 laps to go after Kostecki struck trouble.<\/p>\n
Kostecki spun off track and ended up in the sand trap after a run-in with Payne\u2019s teammate Kai Allen at the first turn, bringing out the yellow flags, and ended up last.<\/p>\n
Payne had been leading by four-and-a-half seconds before the safety car, but he was able to pull away again after the race restart on lap 43.<\/p>\n
The win was Payne\u2019s fourth of the season and his eighth podium from the past nine races with his victory wrapping up the manufacturers title early for Ford.<\/p>\n
Payne has now extended his lead in the championship from 92 to 118 points over Broc Feeney – the largest margin for any driver this season – as he aims to add the Sprint Cup crown to his Enduro Cup title from last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is never nice when have about eight laps to go and you get caught and you\u2019re going to be in the train again,\u201d Payne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the 19 Penrite Racing Mustang was just so fast today. It\u2019s been good all qualifying and managed to get Cam early at the start and press on for the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis car is fast and I love driving it, it\u2019s really good at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not thinking too much about the future, but obviously things are looking pretty good at the moment, so it\u2019s hard to not look at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wood also capitalised on Payne\u2019s move past Waters early in the race to move up into second position, adding another Perth podium to his win at the track last year.<\/p>\n
But Wood said he was unable to match the pace of Payne.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, that thing is on another level, he is so fast at the moment,\u201d Wood said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave it my all \u2026 but I\u2019m super proud of my guys and girls because yesterday we were a second off.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo to come back and fine-tune this car and put ourselves in a podium position is a really proud moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waters and defending champion Chaz Mostert rounded out the top five, while Feeney was the big mover in the race moving up to seventh after starting 13th.<\/p>\n
The result was costly for Kostecki, who has now dropped from third to fourth in the standings behind Waters.<\/p>\n
Allen was adamant he had done nothing wrong in his battle with Kostecki, which was looked at by the stewards but no further action was taken against either driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I had a lot of pace on him and he was blocking me for about 10 laps which I didn\u2019t really like and was hurting my tyres,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got an opportunity and made a mistake at the last corner, I was up the inside of him and threw it into turn one and he obviously didn\u2019t want me to be up the inside of him and he turned in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so unfortunate. In that situation you don\u2019t want to see a car go in the gravel trap, especially with him in his championship fight, I think it was pretty dumb.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably wouldn\u2019t have done that, I would have let him go, knowing who we\u2019re racing. I\u2019m happy I stood my ground. I\u2019m still learning out here.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe used to be my mentor, Brodie, he actually used to mentor me, so it\u2019s funny that I\u2019m racing him hard now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that he\u2019s gone into the gravel trap and ruined his race, but I don\u2019t think I did anything wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grove Racing star Matt Payne has continued his surge towards the Supercars Sprint Cup crown with victory 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