This is an exclusive post-event Supercars.com column by championship-winning Race Engineer Scott Sinclair. Sinclair will preview and debrief each round of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship from his own perspective.
Payne, Kostecki, Feeney and Mostert. The four drivers who’ve won more races than anyone else this year are the four left standing. Adelaide couldn’t have asked for a better Grand Final.
The Grand Final Four
Seeing all seven Finals contenders running first to seventh early in Saturday's race was my highlight of a great weekend at Sandown. The cream always rises to the top. It did at the start of that race, and it kept doing so as the three fastest cars across the year so far, Matt Payne, Brodie Kostecki and Broc Feeney, all locked in a well-deserved Grand Final spot.
Chaz Mostert securing the last spot sets up a blockbuster in Adelaide. His ability to rise for the Finals is extraordinary. Across the last two Finals Series, he's finished all 11 races in the top five, with an average finishing position of 2.4.
To put that into context, at no other point in his 416-race career has he finished 11 consecutive races in the top five. What's more, his average finishing position heading into both of those Finals Series was nearly 10.
It's easy to be distracted by the complex nature of motorsport, but the truest measure of success is whether you win races. It's fitting, then, that the title fight comes down to the season's genuine heavyweights. No flukes, no passengers — just the four most prolific winners going head-to-head.
Brown's moment to forget
There's not a lot more you can say about Will Brown's decision-making during his battle with Brodie Kostecki on Saturday that Brown hasn't already said himself. It was a moment of madness that sent him to the back of the field, effectively sealing his elimination then and there.
What's commendable though is Brown's consistency in fronting up after a mistake, explaining it, then owning it. It's not that common, but he always does it.
It's been a challenging two years for Brown since winning the championship in his first year at Triple Eight. I don't know Brown personally, but from the outside he appears to be the type of driver whose huge talent shines when he's carefree and having fun, as opposed to staying up all night poring over data.
Unfortunately, athletes like Brown have a tendency to give off 'I don't take this seriously' vibes which, in a highly competitive environment, can create tension. Finding the balance between overthinking things because you feel you have to, and staying relaxed to 'do it your way', is a delicate challenge. Hopefully Brown can find that sweet spot again, so we see him back at the front consistently in 2027.
Not fast enough, often enough
Credit to Cam Waters and Anton De Pasquale, who both had a crack over the weekend, breaking podium droughts of at least nine races right when they desperately needed to. The win they really needed wasn't forthcoming though, and their eliminations highlighted the core issue they've both had all year: they're just not at the level of Payne and Kostecki.
Both drivers had top three race pace in fewer than five of the 34 races this season. Payne and Kostecki had it in more than 20. It was the same trend in qualifying. Ultimately, their championships weren't defined by mistakes, or by failing to capitalise on their speed when they had it. They simply weren't fast enough, often enough.
For Waters, it's been the most consistent season of his career. No DNFs and 29 top 10 finishes from 34 races, equalling his career best (2022). Only Payne (30) has had more this year. He's also the fourth-best qualifier and had the fourth-best race results, but it's the gap to the top three that ultimately cost him.
De Pasquale's trend was similar. Not too far off in qualifying (ranked fifth), but without the race pace to stay with the leaders often enough, losing out during the races to the likes of Brown, Mostert and Kai Allen.
To bridge the gap to the front-runners, both are looking for about 0.2s per lap in the races. That's easy to calculate and much harder to find. But that's the nature of a sport decided by the stopwatch.
Finals: yay or nay?
Without a Finals system, Matt Payne’s Penrite Racing team would be packing the championship winner T-shirts and hats in the truck for Adelaide. Only Brodie Kostecki could mathematically catch him, and even if Kostecki won all three races, Payne would need just 17 points across the weekend to seal it: the equivalent of a last-place finish in one of the races.
Some people love the Finals, some hate them. For those who’d prefer a traditional championship, wasn’t it great seeing Kimi Antonelli secure this year’s Formula 1 World Championship with four races still remaining?
Yawn.
Bring on the Grand Final, I say!
Scott Sinclair is one of the most respected voices in pit lane, famously engineering James Courtney to the 2010 championship with Dick Johnson Racing. Sinclair also spent stints at the Holden Racing Team and Kelly Racing, spent time on the Supercars Commission, and recently joined Supercars as a data analyst.
The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of Supercars, teams or drivers.
