Grove hails 'exceptional' rookie Payne

Penrite Racing team owner Stephen Grove has hailed the impressive performance of rookie Matt Payne, who impressed in Melbourne.

Payne was a feature at the front at the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint in what was his second solo round.

It came after the young Kiwi scored finishes of 12th and 14th in Newcastle, the latter result made even more impressive due to Payne battling ill health.

Notably, Payne qualified fifth and eighth for the final two races at Albert Park, with teammate David Reynolds enduring a rotten start to the weekend.

The 20-year-old had his first taste of racing towards the front, and was caught up in an incident with Anton De Pasquale and Macauley Jones.

Payne was penalised over his role in the melee which saw De Pasquale and Jones crash out.

The penalty dropped Payne to 21st in the race, going with results of 13th, 17th and 12th.

It was a bruising weekend overall for Penrite Racing, with Reynolds suffering a string of poor luck before racing from 24th to eighth in the finale.

Grove acknowledged the results weren’t what the team expected, but singled out Payne’s performance.

"It was a tough weekend for us. A lot of things just didn't go our way,” Grove said.

"On the positive side, we had good car speed. We just didn’t execute as well as we would have liked. You need to qualify well to do well in Supercars.

"The other positive is Matt Payne’s performance, with a fifth and an eighth in qualifying, which is exceptional for a rookie.”

"Overall, on the scoreboard, it’s not where we want to be."

Eighth and 12th in the last race was a reward of sorts for the team, with Reynolds relieved and Payne excited to race in the top half of the field.

“Overall, it was a pretty good race where got a good start and made a couple of moves which paid off,” Payne said of the finale.

"There was some nice clean racing up the front, but we may have been on the wrong strategy running on the softs at the start.

"I think it made it challenging towards the end to keep track position, but I ended up racing a few guys hard and clean, so I was pretty happy with myself.

"Overall, it was a good day – shame to lose some spots, but it is what it is and I am feeling very positive.”

Reynolds and Payne are eighth and 17th in the points heading to the next round in Perth.

Payne won last year's Perth Dunlop Series round, having scored a pole and race victory.

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint on April 28-30.