Payne reclaims series lead after stellar Townsville weekend

Matt Payne has reclaimed the lead of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship after an outstanding weekend at the NTI Townsville 500, overturning Broc Feeney’s championship advantage with a win and two podium finishes.

The Grove Racing driver arrived in Townsville trailing Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney in the standings, but quickly turned the title battle on its head. Payne finished third in Friday’s opening sprint to edge ahead of Feeney by eight points, dominated Saturday’s 200-kilometre race for his third victory of the season, then backed it up with second place behind Brodie Kostecki on Sunday to leave North Queensland with a 92-point championship lead.

Saturday’s performance was the standout of Payne’s weekend. After settling into second place at the start, Grove Racing’s pit strategy and strong tyre management allowed him to seize control before pulling away to record victory by 15 seconds – the largest winning margin seen at Townsville.

“The race didn’t start great. Stayed in second, but the guys did an excellent job in the pit lane and saved a bit of fuel, which helped us with track position,” Payne said after the race.

“We like to be in control and manage the race from our end. I think we had a good car that was able to do that and look after its tyres pretty well.”

Payne said the victory was especially satisfying after several near misses in recent races.

“I felt like we came really close a lot of the times this year, and it just didn’t quite go our way,” he said.

“I’m really proud of everyone. The pressure was on, and we managed to execute. It’s pretty cool to be leading the championship and also get a win today.”

Sunday belonged to Dick Johnson Racing’s Brodie Kostecki, who finally converted his impressive qualifying speed into victory after claiming pole position for the opening two races of the weekend.

Driving the famous No. 17 Ford Mustang, Kostecki claimed his sixth victory of the season and first since Christchurch in April, leading Payne home with Cam Waters completing the podium. Chaz Mostert was the leading Toyota in fourth, while Grove Racing’s Kai Allen continued his impressive campaign in fifth.

“The number 17 Ford Mustang was absolutely on fire. It’s had this potential the whole weekend. We just haven’t executed, but I’m so pleased with that,” Kostecki said.

“The car had the pace in it. We could have gone (to the pitstop) late or early in the race and the car would have carried us through.

“I feel like we’ve got a really good baseline now. We’ve been able to try things because the car has been so consistent. We made a lot of changes throughout the weekend and all of it worked.”

Waters opened the weekend by winning Friday’s sprint race after holding off Kostecki by just two-tenths of a second, while Payne’s third-place finish was enough to grab the championship lead from Feeney.

Feeney endured one of his toughest weekends of the season, after uncharacteristically poor qualifying performances on Friday and Saturday he was forced to recover from deep in the field to score valuable points. The Triple Eight driver finished sixth on Sunday.

The Repco Supercars Championship resumes at the Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440 at Wanneroo from July 31 to August 2, where Payne will look to further strengthen his championship advantage after one of the most productive weekends of his Supercars career.