Payne takes Sandown. Adelaide now beckons. The Supercars title fight is set.
Matt Payne’s Sunday Victory at Sandown turned a pole-to-flag drive into a major step towards the Supercars Championship. The New Zealander claimed his sixth win of the season, but the margin came down to less than a second as Anton De Pasquale charged late.
Payne beat the Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro to the first corner and controlled the race until traffic gave De Pasquale a chance to close. A 0.7-second Race Win settled it, while the result also confirmed the four drivers heading to Adelaide’s title decider.
Payne controls Sandown, then survives the final-lap pressure
Starting from pole for the second consecutive day, Payne launched cleanly and kept De Pasquale behind through the opening phase. His Ford built a cushion, but the advantage shrank when the Camaro cleared traffic and found pace in the closing laps.
With more cars ahead and De Pasquale less than a second back at the start of the final tour, Payne had little room to manage the gap. He held his line and brought the car home by 0.7 seconds, ending a winless run that stretched back to August. “We didn’t have much left at the end,” Payne said afterwards, describing a finish decided “by the skin of my teeth”.
Sandown result reshapes the Supercars Championship Standings
Second place did not keep De Pasquale in the hunt: under the Finals format, he needed to win. Brodie Kostecki’s Saturday success had already secured his place, leaving the other contenders fighting for the remaining spots and putting extra weight on every position.
Chaz Mostert made the cut after starting 11th, having missed the Top 10 Shootout by just 0.02 seconds. He worked through the field, including a pass on Thomas Randle, while teammate Cam Waters finished 15th and was eliminated. The outcome also ended Will Brown’s hopes: after qualifying 19th by a margin of only 0.04 seconds, he finished sixth, but the weekend had become a win-or-bust proposition.
Four finalists head to Adelaide for the title challenge
The Final Four is now set: Payne, Broc Feeney, Kostecki and Mostert. Feeney’s fourth place secured his progression despite a difficult weekend for his team, while Kostecki recovered from a drive-through penalty to finish 10th after switching off his engine on the grid-formation lap.
Three finalists will race Ford machinery against Mostert’s Toyota, as the series heads to Adelaide on 27–29 November. Three races await on the street circuit, including a Friday evening contest, and the Championship Standings have now given way to a straight fight for the crown. For more on Mostert’s Supercars form, see this report on his rain-soaked Gold Coast victory; the wider Motorsport coverage tracks the road to the finale.
