Brodie Kostecki is in the box seat to close out a second Larry Perkins Trophy win, with a poor Race 7 qualifying putting closest rival Broc Feeney into an uphill battle.
A Matt Payne DNF opened the door to Saturday winner Feeney to jump into second place in the Larry Perkins Trophy standings.
Kostecki has scored 224 of a maximum 240 this weekend, but feel short by less than 0.2s on Saturday after an enthralling battle with Feeney.
Still, the 2023 Perkins Trophy winner is on track to add another in 2026, given Feeney is buried in the mid-pack for Sunday's race.
With Payne out on lap 1, only four drivers head into Sunday in contention for the trophy: Kostecki, Feeney, Cam Waters and Kai Allen. Payne dropped from second to fifth, and is 86 points down with 80 remaining.
Ryan Wood, who was penalised over a clash with Thomas Randle on Saturday, dropped from third to eighth. Reigning champion Chaz Mostert is sixth, with both Walkinshaw TWG Racing drivers penalised on Saturday.
While Feeney moved to second, he will start 11th on Sunday, with Kostecki to start from fourth. Two time Larry Perkins Trophy winner Will Brown will start from pole, but is 15th for the round after another shocker.
The Larry Perkins Trophy will be won in Race 7, which will start at 10:10am local time.
2026 Larry Perkins Trophy standings: Race 6, Melbourne SuperSprint
Pos | Driver | Points | Gap to leader |
|---|---|---|---|
1st | Kostecki* | 224 | |
2nd | Feeney* | 183 | -41 |
3rd | Waters* | 170 | -54 |
4th | Allen* | 155 | -69 |
5th | Payne | 138 | -86 |
6th | Mostert | 128 | -96 |
7th | De Pasquale | 127 | -97 |
8th | Wood | 126 | -98 |
9th | Le Brocq | 115 | -109 |
10th | Heimgartner | 105 | -119 |
11th | Golding | 101 | -123 |
12th | Reynolds | 85 | -139 |
13th | Randle | 72 | -152 |
14th | Hill | 71 | -153 |
15th | Brown | 70 | -154 |
16th | Ojeda | 69 | -155 |
17th | Fraser | 68 | -156 |
18th | Walls | 65 | -159 |
19th | Bates | 65 | -159 |
20th | Jones | 64 | -160 |
21st | Gray | 64 | -160 |
22nd | Murray | 60 | -164 |
23rd | Stewart | 51 | -173 |
24th | Cameron | 40 | -184 |
*Driver still has a mathematical chance of winning the trophy