Payne lashes out over driving standards after Golding clash

A frustrated Matt Payne's early season championship lead has gone up in smoke and sparks after a hair-raising lap 1 incident with James Golding in Melbourne.

After taking the lead from Broc Feeney earlier in the weekend, Payne was forced out on the first lap of Saturday's race following a wild high-speed tangle with Ford rival Golding.

The two Fords ran line astern exiting Turn 2, and side-to-side contact saw both drivers wiped out of contention in dramatic circumstances.

With three punctures and a broken front right wheel, Payne pulled his ailing #19 Penrite Mustang over in the run-off at Turn 4. With Cooper Murray tipped into a spin on lap 2, a Safety Car allowed officials to retrieve Payne's car.

It consigned Payne to a first DNF since the 2024 Bathurst 1000, ending a 43-race finish streak.

Penrite Racing boss Brenton Grove quipped to the broadcast that Payne put himself in a bad position, suggesting Golding lost Payne in his mirrors.

"I think Golding's probably not looking at that mirror at that point in time," Grove said.

"We put ourselves in a challenging position. But at the end of the day, Matt had a run and he was trying to keep the position. So it's unfortunate, but it's racing. We made some carnage yesterday and got away with it and we didn't get away with it today."

Payne entered Saturday 30 points ahead of Feeney, and was 17 points down in the Larry Perkins Trophy points standings. He dropped from first to fourth, with Feeney defeating Brodie Kostecki.

"Pretty disappointing day for us in the 19 camp," Payne told Supercars.com.

"Race ended two corners in, so pretty disappointing. I felt like I had enough authority to be there on the outside. Had enough car in the game.

"It's disappointing to race so hard for one corner, I guess you could say, and be sort of put in the wall when we could've easily raced down to Turn 3 and we would've still been running in the race. It would've played it out further along the track."

Payne watched more carnage unfold from the garage, and wasn't impressed. Notably, Will Brown clashed with Cooper Murray and Aaron Cameron, after Brown was hit by Chaz Mostert. Ryan Wood was penalised after sending Thomas Randle into the barriers.

"We're seeing the level of standards in the category now," Payne continued.

"Like, I don't know how many crashes there were in that race — probably four or five — that were pretty average, pretty average driving.

"It is what it is at the moment. We're trying to avoid it. We're trying to start up the front, but when you're not starting up the front, you get caught in it."

The Larry Perkins Trophy will be won in Sunday's Race 7, which will commence at 10:10am local time.