The 21-year-old Supercars rookie completely dominated the 250km race after starting second in his Grove Racing Ford Mustang. He leapt away at the start and built a lead of four seconds over newly-crowned champion Brodie Kostecki in 20 laps, and controlled the race almost at will, to win by 8.54 seconds.
Payne had shown great speed over the whole weekend and more than made up for a disappointing Saturday when a qualifying shootout mistake compounded into a lowly 23rd-place finish.
“It’s so good, I've got no words,” said Payne, whose previous best result was fourth place on the Gold Coast last month.
“We have all been trying, we worked so hard to get to this point. The Groves believed in me when they first put me in Super2.
“I kind of got the jump on him [Kostecki] and went for it.”
Second place went to Broc Feeney’s Triple Eight Chevrolet Camaro, after making strong progress from fifth on the grid.
“Seeing Matty win is awesome, it is literally Deja vu back to last year,” said Feeney, who scored his own maiden Supercars win in Adelaide a year ago.
Source: Autosport