Matt Payne unwilling to declare Repco Sprint Cup battle over
Payne 92 points clear of Broc Feeney with six races remaining
Kiwi bracing for Feeney, Triple Eight to fire in Perth
Matt Payne may have a handy buffer in the race for the Repco Sprint Cup, but he is still wary of the sleeping giant that is Broc Feeney and Red Bull Ampol Racing.
A wild points swing over the last two rounds has seen the reigning Bathurst champion turn a 90-point deficit into a 92-point lead with six races remaining, having finished no worse than fourth across the last six races.
Feeney meanwhile has been left to rue an uncharacteristic lack of speed, as Triple Eight looks to learn all they can about the Ford Mustang package ahead of the all-important Finals Series.
Amidst a Supercars field that is arguably the most competitive it has ever been, Penrite Racing star Payne knows that Triple Eight and Feeney could easily turn the corner at any given moment, given their history of proven performance.
"I think it's just naturally what happens. We always try and be the best we can week in and week out, and unfortunately for Broc he was just on the wrong side of that tenth, really," Payne told media.
"It doesn't take much, and he didn't quite get on top of that, and to be able to run in the top three here it's super competitive, the whole field is so quick.
"Fortunately for us, we could take advantage of that when we needed to, and keep extending that. There's no doubt they're gonna turn things around at some stage, and he'll be faster than ever.
"For sure, the gaps are a little bit smaller in terms of qualifying. You still have the heavy hitters up the front week in and week out, so for a team like Triple Eight to not have a successful round in points per se is a little bit strange.
"But we've seen it I don't know how many times, they've had a couple of bad races and then they come out swinging even harder.
"I'm sure they're going to work for it and find out whatever their issues are, and fix those up."
Last year it was Feeney and Payne who duked it out in a dramatic final race in the West, Feeney getting the upper hand and finishing just sixth tenths of Payne in a grandstand finish.
Perth poses a very different challenge to the streets of Townsville, with a 55-second lap punishing the slightest mistakes in qualifying, and an abrasive surface and long corners punishing poor tyre life across a race distance.
Throw on top of that a top four of Payne, Feeney, Brodie Kostecki, and Cam Waters, all of whom are covered by 195 points, and Payne is all too aware of what consequences could lie ahead if he was to slip.
"We've seen it time and time again that you just make one tiny mistake and you just get punished so bad for it," Payne continued.
"You don't feel like it's that bad, but you have to be ten tenths to be competitive in this series, which is great because for motorsport worldwide I think there's only a very limited amount of series that offer that kind of competition.
"Especially with how even the cars are, it shows any weaknesses that anyone has.
"Perth's another one of those Australian older tracks that has a lot of character and it's tough, you gotta have a slightly awkward set-up to make it work really well.
"We've seen teams go there in the past that have a really, really strong weekend, and some that have a really, really bad weekend, so hopefully we can do the work to make sure we're on the other side of that and can score some good points again."
On-track action in Perth begins on Friday.
