Payne makes career admission after Taupō breakthrough

Matt Payne has labelled his Taupō triumph as the best and most complete weekend of his motorsport career.

The Penrite Racing driver claimed a pole position and won two of the three races at the ITM Taupō Super 440, taking out the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.

The 22-year-old moved to third in the championship, and is only 46 points behind leader Will Brown heading to the next round in Tasmania.

Payne also became just the third New Zealander to win the Jason Richards Trophy, and the fifth to win a Supercars race in New Zealand.

Speaking on Supercars’ Cool Down Lap podcast, the Grove Racing star hailed both himself and his team.

"I think it's gonna sink in probably tomorrow,” Payne said.

"I think it’s pretty safe for me to say, I think this is definitely the best weekend I've had in motorsport, probably the most complete I'd say, just from sort of a me point of view.

"I think we all did a really good job. The team worked really hard before this round to make sure we came in prepared, and we just really executed well. And ultimately that’s that's all we did, and the results show.”

Brown and Waters are separated by just 34 points, with Payne 12 points behind his Ford rival. Broc Feeney, Chaz Mostert and Brodie Kostecki are 61, 86 and 111 points behind respectively.

At 22, Payne already has an Adelaide 500 and Jason Richards Trophy in his pocket, and is now setting his sights on Bathurst and the championship.

“Look, we are obviously in a good position in the championship now after a good weekend,” the Auckland-born driver said.

"I think it's probably, that probably shows as well from a lot of the other guys up front struggling, like obviously Red Bull didn't have the weekend they wanted... Cam obviously didn't have the week and he really wanted ultimately as well.

“So, I think it was sort of a bit of a mixed bag of points that came out of this weekend. And for us, we really took advantage of that and it shows. For us, we just really need to focus on what's gonna make us more consistent over the next few rounds.

"Two of sort of bogey tracks for us coming up, so we're gonna have to work hard to try and have speed at both of those as well. But definitely, everyone has their sight set on Bathurst and definitely the championship for me.”

The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Snowy River Caravans Tasmania Super 440 on May 9-11. Tickets are on sale now.