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’sPayne 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.”
Matt Payne, Grove Racing
Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics
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
52'23.9612
+0.5980
52'24.5592
+8.6113
52'32.5725
+9.0022
52'32.9634
+10.1591
52'34.1203
+18.7212
52'42.6824
+20.4267
52'44.3879
+21.0234
52'44.9846
+22.1782
52'46.1394
+23.0178
52'46.9790
+27.0292
52'50.9904
+29.7732
52'53.7344
+37.1639
53'01.1251
+37.9670
53'01.9282
+38.6081
53'02.5693
+39.3197
53'03.2809
+43.9019
53'07.8631
+44.5777
53'08.5389
+45.1433
53'09.1045
+48.4763
53'12.4375
+51.7340
53'15.6952
+57.1653
53'21.1265
+6 Laps
53'31.0999
+7 Laps
52'25.3532
Supercars Christchurch - Race 3 results
52'13.6979
+11.6431
52'25.3410
+14.1640
52'27.8619
+15.4382
52'29.1361
+18.4086
52'32.1065
+19.8903
52'33.5882
+20.1482
52'33.8461
+20.6117
52'34.3096
+20.9185
52'34.6164
+23.0623
52'36.7602
+26.2318
52'39.9297
+28.4276
52'42.1255
+31.7173
52'45.4152
+31.9609
52'45.6588
+32.8713
52'46.5692
+35.8249
52'49.5228
+45.4463
52'59.1442
+46.7109
53'00.4088
+47.7836
53'01.4815
+48.0129
53'01.7108
+51.7418
53'05.4397
+59.7682
53'13.4661
+1'00.7988
53'14.4967
+1'03.8714
53'17.5693
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- The Autosport.com Team
Source: Autosport