Supercars 2025: Grove Racing star Matt Payne pips Broc Feeney in final-lap thriller in Tasmania Super 440
Grove Racing star Matt Payne has produced a stunning drive to stave off a fast finishing Broc Feeney in the third-closest finish in Supercars history at Symmons Plains. WATCH THE FINISH
Grove Racing star Matt Payne has produced a stunning drive to stave off a fast finishing Broc Feeney in a thrilling final-lap duel to win Sunday’s final race in Tasmania by the tightest margin.
In a gripping finish at Symmons Plains, Payne held off the flying Triple Eight star by just 0.055sec in a drag race to the finish line to claim his third victory for the year in the third-closest finish in Supercars history.
Working on alternate strategies, Payne enhanced his tyre management reputation, making his last for the final 48 laps after taking his second stop mid-race under the safety car while Feeney attempted to chase him down on fresher tyres late in the race.
After taking his second stop with 22 laps to go, Feeney made up a gap of more than 16 seconds to Payne to catch him on the second last lap.
The pair duelled over the final lap with the New Zealander holding off Feeney in a sprint to the finish line to deny the title leader a clean sweep of the Tasmanian round after his two sprint wins on Saturday.
The pair finished ahead of third-placed pole sitter Will Brown, who recovered from a poor start to claim his first podium of the weekend.
The victory propelled Payne up to third in the championship standings, while Feeney extended his title lead to 33 points over teammate Brown.
Starting the race from 11th position, Payne said the win was one of his best.
“That was a pretty cool race. I knew it was going to be seriously tight there at the end,” Payne said.
“The car actually held onto its tyres really well, we ran four greens which helped.
“It’s just unreal, the battle at the end, once I got through the hairpin I knew I could cover him down the back here, but still he put up a good fight.
“It’s so good to win here because we have struggled here so much and definitely the hard work has paid off.
“We knew coming in that we would do the double stop if there was a safety car so as soon as there was a safety car, I knew that would be our play.
“I didn’t think Broc was going to come that hard at the end. I couldn’t really see him for a while and all of a sudden he was within three seconds.
“That has definitely got to be one of the best races that I have done … this continues our build for the championship.”
Feeney’s podium capped a strong weekend for the Triple Eight ace, who jumped from fourth in the standings to the title lead.
“It was pretty wild. Congrats to Matty, obviously a different strategy paid off for them,” Feeney said.
“Man, we were so fast. It was just qualifying laps from that safety car restart and the crew has done a fantastic job this weekend.
“There’s plenty to be proud of this weekend, it’s a shame we came up short, but it was a bloody good race.
“I would have loved to get the win and the sweep this weekend, but we have certainly bounced back from New Zealand. I said coming into this weekend I want to leave leading it, but to have that big of a swing in points is awesome.”
In a dramatic start, Golding emerged with the race lead from fourth place on the grid after getting the jump on pole sitter Will Brown, Ryan Wood and Cam Waters.
Brown slipped from first to sixth in the opening laps as Feeney immediately improved his starting position from fifth.
By lap 12, Feeney had improved his position to second after overtaking Waters before he set about reeling in Golding’s lead.
After the safety car was deployed on lap 28 when Brodie Kostecki was turned and parked on the grass after contact from Bryce Fullwood at turn three, Feeney emerged with the lead ahead of Golding after the pair pitted for their first compulsory stop.
Fullwood was hit with a drive-through penalty for the incident with Kostecki, which cruelled Bathurst 1000 champion’s race.
A group of drivers, including Brown and Payne, opted to take their second stop as well while under the mid-race safety car and gamble on their tyres lasting until the finish, but race leaders Feeney, Golding, stuck to one.
After the full field had taken their second stop by lap 60, Payne emerged with the race lead ahead of Brown and David Reynolds, with Feeney in fifth with a 15-second gap to Payne with 18 laps to go.
Feeney stormed through the field at lap record speed, overtaking his teammate Brown with seven laps to go to move into second place behind Payne.
The pace of the Red Bull looked like it would catch Payne, but the Kiwi had other ideas.
Earlier, Brown reclaimed his qualifying mojo to break through to claim his first pole position of the year in the top-10 shootout.
RACE 1: FEENEY OFF TO A FLYER
Triple Eight young gun Broc Feeney has given his championship standing a boost after cruising to victory in the opening sprint race at Symmons Plains, as he crushed Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle’s hopes of a breakthrough win.
Bouncing back from a lean round in New Zealand when the team failed to score a podium, Feeney claimed his second win for the year as he finished almost eight seconds ahead of second-placed Randle.
At Triple Eight’s happy hunting ground at the Tasmanian circuit, Feeney started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Randle and duelled with the Ford driver over the first 11 laps before making his move on the back straight for the race lead.
Randle dropped another place to Feeney’s teammate Brown later in the lap and it appeared Triple Eight was on target for a one-two before the defending champion encountered trouble at his pit stop and lost ground.
Feeney was unchallenged for the rest of the race, leading home Randle and Brad Jones Racing’s Bryce Fullwood, who claimed his first podium for the year.
Brown finished the 50-lap race in fifth with his closest championship rival, Tickford’s Cam Waters, taking fourth.
The win moved Feeney from fourth position in the driver standings back into third as he capitalised on his “rocket ship” Camaro with his lap record pace.
Feeney will have another chance to add to his win in Saturday afternoon’s second sprint race when he starts on pole position.
“I’m stoked to get a win again, absolutely chuffed with that – the thing was a rocket ship,” Feeney said.
“I knew on the first few laps I probably had the speed, so I just had to wait for my time to get past Thomas and he was driving fantastic.
“I knew where I was going to get him (Randle), I just had to wait for my time. I had a good run through one and two and I knew it was going to be the lap … a bit of side-drafting with the Tickford car which I am used to and it was good to get one back.
“(I’m) stoked for the team, it’s obviously a great bounce back.”
Feeney’s victory gave Triple Eight its 27th win from 52 starts at Symmons Plains.
Randle, still chasing his first Supercars race win, was pleased to be able to still walk away from a podium but admitted he did not have the pace to match Feeney.
“It’s the first podium for me here. It’s nice to get the podium and capitalise on the race and I think that’s all we could have done,” Randle said.
“It was cool to lead for the first few laps, I was trying to break the slipstream off Broc, but he was too fast.”
There was drama before the race when both Dick Johnson Racing Fords were investigated for a technical breach, but were cleared by the stewards.
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