Penrite Racing confirms cause of costly Matt Payne DNF
Payne ruled out of Sunday's Ipswich finale after valvetrain issue
Penrite Racing crew invited to Triple Eight to oversee engine tear-down
Penrite Racing has confirmed that a significant valvetrain failure was behind Matt Payne’s costly DNF in the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440 finale.
Bathurst champion Payne missed out on the Repco Sprint Cup after he was taken out of contention with an issue midway through Race 28.
The New Zealander only needed to finish within sight of Broc Feeney to clinch the title, but didn’t finish at all. Feeney won the race, and the Sprint Cup.
Such was the severity of the issue, that Payne would not have made it out before the end of the race, let alone be classified to try and save the Sprint Cup.
An early diagnosis suggested the DNF was caused by a crankshaft sensor angle failure. After Tuesday’s pre-Ryco Enduro Cup test, team Head of Performance Alistair McVean confirmed that a valvetrain issue was to blame.
“We were able to go out to Triple Eight last night, as they were pulling apart the engine, they kindly invited us into their shop to have a look and we’ve been able to discover there was a major mechanical failure within the valvetrain of the engine,” McVean said in a team video.
“So unfortunately once that happened, there was no chance of proceeding any further, so there was nothing we could have done to have prevented it from happening or to get us back out on track at that stage.
“Obviously that was quite heartbreaking on Sunday to have that happen to us.”
Penrite Racing fitted the Payne Mustang with a spare engine for Tuesday’s test at Queensland Raceway.
Payne will defend his Ryco Enduro Cup title with two-time Bathurst winner Will Davison.
