Payne vows to take next step after best start to a season

A weekend of consistency, despite being unable to throw punches at the very front, has Penrite Racing driver Matt Payne confident in taking the fight to the leaders in 2025.

Payne has emerged as an early championship challenger after a strong opening round, finishing fourth, fifth and sixth in the three races at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The Kiwi recorded his best start to a season, sitting fifth overall with 212 points, despite being 103 points behind runaway leader Cam Waters.

Payne began his rookie season in 2023 with 132 points in 12th overall, 144 points from the lead. Last year, he was eighth, scoring 174 points and sitting 114 points down.

The New Zealander qualified third for Race 1, and came home third after being passed by Waters' teammate Thomas Randle on the final lap. On Saturday, Payne finished two seconds from victory after the remarkable last-lap turn of events.

After racing from sixth to sixth on Sunday, Payne told the broadcast: “It’s been very consistent for us in the Penrite squad.

“We had a series of fourth, fifth and sixth, which is good for us. We know we definitely want more. We just need continue on and building with the car, and find that next step to catch the front three.

“We’ll go back and work on it, and come out strong for the Grand Prix."

Crucially, Payne kept his head as rain fell towards the end of Sunday's race to bring home points, adding: “It was super dicey at the end, it was a bit of fun though, I didn’t expect the rain to actually come down as much as it did.

"We got stuck out there on slicks, we weren’t gonna pit, we just knew we needed to keep going, and there were some seriously slippery corners. But we managed to bring home some good points."

Team Principal David Cauchi admitted that his team didn't have the pace to fight with Tickford Racing and Triple Eight Race Engineering, but there was plenty to take into the Grand Prix.

“It was a pretty positive weekend for us. First qualifying of the year and we had both cars in the top 10, which was fantastic, especially for Kai in his first qualifying in the Supercars Championship," Cauchi said.

“Overall for the team, it was a fairly strong weekend. We definitely didn’t have the pace of a couple of the cars out the front, but there was a lot of learning and a lot of good things to build on for the rest of the year.

“Some strong pit stops after guys and girls did a really good job, so I’m really looking forward to taking a breath and then going at it again at the AGP in a couple of weeks time.”

The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Melbourne SuperSprint, which will feature at the Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix 2025 on March 13-16.