Triple Eight boss unsurprised by Waters/Payne collision

Red Bull Ampol Racing Team Manager, Mark Dutton, has declared that he wasn't surprised by the clash that saw two of Ford's leading contenders wipe each other out of championship contention.

The Repco Supercars Finals Series has injected new levels of pressure and jeopardy into the final three rounds of the championship.

There had been glimpses of such pressure throughout the opening three races at the Gold Coast and Sandown, with the likes of Brodie Kostecki and Anton De Pasquale bowing out of title contention through unforced errors.

However, save for an awkward tangle between Kai Allen and Thomas Randle on the Gold Coast, we hadn't seen two Finals Drivers involved in championship-changing contact.

That was, until yesterday. The protagonists? Cam Waters and Matt Payne.

Both were in different scenarios, Waters' season hanging on by a thread with a penalty hanging over his head, Payne in a position of security with a handy points buffer over the cut-line.

Yet, the red mist descended, as first Payne launched an aggressive move at Turn 1, before Waters returned the favour at Turn 4. The resulting contact wounded both Mustangs to the point where they would both lose several laps for repairs.

That promoted Kai Allen to a stunning Grand Final berth in his rookie season, with Waters and Payne left to wonder what could've been.

Ahead of all the carnage, Dutton's two hopefuls, Broc Feeney and Will Brown, claimed a 1-3 finish to comfortably book their tickets to Adelaide. However, that was after Brown had himself had a run-in with a fired up Waters.

Sharing his thoughts on the incident post-race on the Cool Down Lap presented by Moza Racing, Dutton said: "I'm not shocked, there's massive pressure.

"A few people have made statements about what they would do to get in to it, and it looks like they held some of those things true.

"If I was in their shoes, and that was our drivers, you'd be debriefing to say, 'Did you do everything that you could control correctly? Are there some better choices or different choices you could've made?'

"I don't know those answers, I'm not in those teams, but I know for us we would look internally to see what we could've done better."

Dutton's driver Brown was one to stand up to the pressure, racing from 15th to second, and 17th to third, to secure his Grand Final spot.

"It's been a lot of pressure over the last two rounds with this new Finals format and I've had some things not go my way," said Brown, who crashed twice in Gold Coast qualifying.

"Saying that we've had some other things that did go our way. All up to be in that final four and hunting for another championship is awesome.

"This isn't a normal championship but we're in it and we will do everything we can to prepare over the next few weeks, go in with a shot to win it."