The brutal record Payne must overcome to prevent title blow

Matt Payne has emerged as the surprise benchmark in qualifying this season, but that will firmly be put to the test at the next round in Tasmania.

Through four rounds and 13 races in 2026, it's Payne leading the way on 3.57, ahead of Brodie Kostecki on 4.00, with 2025 benchmark Broc Feeney at 5.15.

However, Payne's qualifying average at Symmons Plains is a woeful 16.9, which places him 15th of active Supercars drivers at the Tasmania circuit in the Gen3 era, ahead of Team 18 driver Anton De Pasquale.

In contrast, Feeney has an outstanding 3.8 average, ahead of Cam Waters (4.3), Will Brown (5.4), Thomas Randle (7.8) and Kostecki (7.9).

Why these stats matter, is simple — of 98 races held at Symmons Plains, 72 have been won from the front row. 43 have been won from pole position, and 29 from second place.

The ultimate outlier in the last 20 years was Payne's stunning victory from 12 months ago, when he benefited from a Penrite Racing strategy masterclass under Safety Car conditions to win from 11th, albeit by just 0.055s.

Those Safety Car regulations have since been removed, so a similar masterclass would be hard to come by for Payne should he again stumble in qualifying.

Regardless, for some reason or another, Payne hasn't clicked at Symmons Plains. His qualifying results read 17th, 18th and 12th (2023), 23rd and 19th (2024) and 24th, 11th and 11th (2025).

That's not to say Penrite Racing hasn't been working to improve, with Payne emerging as class of the field in Christchurch, with teammate Kai Allen vaulting to fifth in the championship.

What is crucial for Payne and engineer Jack Bell, is that they're only as good as their last result. In Christchurch, Payne claimed his car was a "jet."

"I think it's mostly just about trying to perform consistently and also rolling out with a good, strong cars helps," Payne said after victory at Ruapuna.

"I think we're really faring really well at the moment. It's really cool to see everyone working together so well. We just need to keep chipping away at it.

"I'm sure everyone's gonna be working that a little bit harder now because they've had a taste of it, of the really cool weekends having a lot of trophies come in.”

Track action commences at Symmons Plains on Friday May 22. Tickets for the event are on sale now.

2026 Supercars drivers' Tasmania Gen3 qualifying averages

Results between 2023 and 2025

Note: Declan Fraser didn't race in 2024 and 2025. Ryan Wood didn't race in 2023. Kai Allen, Cooper Murray and Aaron Cameron didn't race in 2023 and 2024.