'Burning smell' alerted Payne of out-lap issue

Matt Payne and Garth Tander are still upbeat about their chances at this weekend’s Penrite Oil Sandown 500 despite a scrappy opening practice session for the weekend.

The #19 Mustang immediately found itself in trouble on the out-lap as the session began this morning, with a plume of smoke noticeable from the rear of the car.

Payne, who enters the weekend fifth in the championship thanks to a win in Townsville, was in the pits for more than a third of the half-hour session, as a power steering issue was rectified.

“We had a bit of a burning smell coming out of Turn 9 and then the power steering let go on the front straight,” said the Kiwi post session.

“The boys did a really good job to get it fixed whatever it was, I think it was a fitting or something like that, then we just ran on with our session, managed to get a few runs in, so it was really good.”

Payne would end up in 21st for the session, whilst the sister car of Richie Stanaway and Dale Wood was 18th.

Both Penrite Mustangs from Grove Racing are resplendent in retro liveries this weekend, paying homage to Allan Moffat’s 1974 Ford Falcon hardtop.

Payne and Tander are one of the fancied enduro combinations for Sandown and Bathurst, with Tander acting as Payne’s mentor since he made his full-time debut last season.

Tander is one of eight previous Sandown 500 winners in the field, and is a five-time Bathurst winner, something that Payne is eager to make the most of.

“Yeah it’s been really good, I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time teaming up with him, so we’ll give it a crack this weekend and see how well we can go.”

Tander didn’t get any seat time this morning, with Grove Racing instead opting to give Payne a full session of running.

“It was always the plan that I wouldn’t drive the car in Practice 1, and then obviously with that power steering issue we lost about 11 minutes of match running so I definitely wouldn’t have been getting in anyway,” said the 2016 Sandown 500 winner.

“I was just listening in, obviously a bit of a messy session for us losing that time at the start. We’ll reset now and get ready for Practice 2.”

Practice 2 at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 is an exclusive session for co-drivers, and will begin at 12:45pm AEST.