Matt Payne has underlined his status as the new Supercars leader by producing an utterly dominant display in the second race of the Townsville 500.
The Grove Racing star secured his third win of the season by a mammoth 15.289 seconds in the 68-lap, 200km race at Reid Park Street Circuit on Saturday.
It was the New Zealander's first win since the Christchurch Super 440 in April, despite earning a flurry of podiums in between.
By finishing third in Friday's sprint, Payne overtook previous competition leader Broc Feeney, although he knew he needed to continue his sparkling form on Saturday to extend his eight-point lead over the Triple Eight Race Engineering star in the standings.
With his lead now 61 points, Payne feels as if he's driving like the competition's frontrunner.
"There's been really good results over the last few rounds, and we haven't been outside the top four for a while now," the Grove Racing star said.
"There are still obviously always things we can work on and do better, but the points are looking pretty good at the moment."
Despite relinquishing provisional pole to Dick Johnson Racing driver Brodie Kostecki, the Kiwi rebounded, capitalising on Kostecki's poor pit stop at the end of lap 20 to earn a sizeable advantage over the pole-sitter.
"I'd get fined if I said what I thought at the time, but obviously wasn't happy," Kostecki said of the incident.
"When you lose 10 seconds in the pits, with the way the category is today, it's pretty hard to make that up."
Where the drama came to a head was in the chasing pack, as Anton De Pasquale produced a remarkable comeback, powering from 11th to second.
Matt Payne goes BANG!
— Supercars (@supercars) July 11, 2026
He wins Race 21 in Townsville! #RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/0A9QcY9doM
De Pasquale began to run out of fuel as the Dick Johnson Racing driver upped the ante, but the 30-year-old held his nerve to snare his third podium of the campaign.
Thomas Randle was looking for his second podium of the season after starting in third, but the Tickford Racing driver had to settle for fifth, ultimately outclassed by his teammate Cam Waters.
But Waters won't be too happy with his fourth-placed finish, considering he was aiming for a fifth consecutive podium, which included claiming victory in Friday's sprint.
It had been 78 races since Feeney missed out on starting in the top 10 two consecutive times, and although he began in 18th he soared up 10 positions to finish eighth.
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Walkinshaw TWG's Ryan Wood had a day to forget, as he was nudged off the track by Kai Allen midway through the race and finished last.
RACE 21 RESULTS:
1. Matt Payne (Grove Racing)
2. Anton De Pasquale (Team 18)
3. Brodie Kostecki (Dick Johnson Racing)
4. Cam Waters (Tickford Racing)
5. Thomas Randle (Tickford Racing)
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
1. Matt Payne (Grove Racing)
2. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight Race Engineering)
3. Cam Waters (Tickford Racing)
4. Brodie Kostecki (Dick Johnson Racing)
5. Anton De Pasquale (Team 18)
