The added cost of Payne's final race nightmare
Matt Payne dropped behind Thomas Randle in final race
Payne had held fifth in championship for balance of 2024 season
Penrite Ford escorted into wall on Sunday as Randle finished third
The VAILO Adelaide 500 was a “weekend to forget” for Penrite Racing and Matt Payne, who slipped out of the top five in the final race.
After a sterling run to fourth in Saturday’s race, the reigning Adelaide 500 champion was escorted into the barriers early in Sunday’s race.
After missing the Sunday Shootout, Payne was battling in the midfield when he collided with Nick Percat, crunching the barriers. Payne managed to extract his damaged Mustang, which lost its bonnet.
Extensive repairs dropped Payne down the order, relegating the Kiwi to 24th and last.
It was a brutal end to an otherwise impressive campaign, with Payne winning in Townsville and claiming podiums at the Grand Prix and Sydney.
Payne led PremiAir Nulon Racing driver James Golding by 21 points, and Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle by 71 points, heading to Adelaide. Payne and Randle finished fourth and fifth on Saturday, and Golding 15th.
Heading into Sunday, Payne led Randle by 80 points, and Golding by 82 points. Randle powered to third on Sunday with Golding eighth. With Payne down the order, Randle rubbed salt into the New Zealander’s wounds by jumping to fifth at the final race.
All told, Randle finished 13 points ahead of Payne, and 41 ahead of Golding. Penrite Racing did, however, hang onto fourth in the teams' standings ahead of Shell V-Power Racing Team by just 45 points.
Beyond Payne’s final day frustration, Penrite Racing encountered a remarkable sequence of events following Richie Stanaway’s Friday crash, with Dale Wood and Kai Allen both standing in.
Porsche Carrera Cup driver Wood was a last-minute fill-in after Super2 driver and 2025 recruit Allen was deemed ineligible, with a rule tweaked overnight to allow the teen to race.
Coincidentally, Wood and Allen both finished 22nd in their respective races, after both struck trouble. Wood went off at Turn 5, while Allen sustained rear damage from a hit.
"It was a weekend to forget as Penrite Racing rounded out the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship at the VAILO Adelaide 500,” the team said in its post-race release.
"Unfortunately, Race 24 would go down as a series of unfortunate events. Matt Payne was an early victim of the complete chaos, as he was escorted wide at Turn 11 by Nick Percat. Car 19 would ultimately be stuck in the tire barrier, and once extracted, the lack of structural integrity sent the bonnet flying and completely remove itself from the car.
"Despite the newfound airflow, Matt would drive around in last position. However, finishing the race proved instrumental in banking valuable points.
"Kai’s debut was truly a baptism of fire, having to pit off sequence multiple times through no fault of his own. He was hit from behind early in the race, inflicting major damage to the rear diffuser. This was exacerbated later in the race as he was once more hit from behind, forcing yet another unscheduled pit stop."
