Payne keeping one eye on title after Brown crash

Matt Payne says the fight for the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship has "definitely closed up” following Will Brown’s Townsville crash.

Payne claws back crucial ground in the championship hunt after winning last week’s Townsville finale, which was headlined by Brown’s lap 1 incident.

The championship leader collided with David Reynolds, with Brown nursing his damaged Red Bull Ampol Camaro to 24th and last — the first time he has finished outside the top 10.

Payne (first), Cam Waters (second), Chaz Mostert (third) and Broc Feeney (seventh) were all beneficiaries, with the margin between Brown and Feeney slashed from 141 to 78 points.

Penrite Racing driver Payne, the seventh different winner in the last nine races, also cut the deficit from 567 to 450 points, with 1820 still to win in the final six rounds.

"There's always a chance for the championship leader to have a bad day,” Payne told Fox Sports News.

“Coming out of the first corner, it's obviously really hard to sort of see who's behind or next to you. And he obviously didn't see that Dave was on the outside.

Mostert, who finished second and third in the two Townsville races, started the weekend 279 points down, but is now 174 adrift heading to Sydney.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver, however, was determined to beat Brown on merit, rather than rely on misfortune.

"First of all, you've got to try and beat your competitors on track and you've got to try and put the best package you can and drive the car the best you can,” Mostert said.

“You don't want people to have bad days. You want to beat people at their best.

"For us, I still think we've still got homework to do. So, that's really the only focus for us to still so much to play in this year.”

The season will resume under lights in Sydney on July 19-21.