Penrite Racing cruelly denied decisive driver swap

Matt Payne was left to a watch a potential race win evaporate in dramatic fashion, as an untimely Safety Car denied Penrite Racing a shot at victory.

Kai Allen and Payne led the field to green after the first Safety Car of Saturday's second Ipswich race, but biff and barge dropped Payne down the order, with eventual winner Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki marching forward.

On the second restart, Brown pounced on Allen, and Kostecki went on through. Broc Feeney pushed Allen off the podium, while Payne plummeted to sixth.

Where a one-two finish was in the offing, Penrite Racing missed the podium altogether. Cruelly, the team was lining up a swap to propel Payne — who had taken four tyres versus the undercutting Allen's two — to the front.

Championship leader Payne was at the centre of the late drama, being hit around before picking up front left tyre smoke. While he still holds a commanding lead in the Repco Sprint Cup fight, Payne was left to rue a missed opportunity.

"Yeah, it's just one of those races," the Bathurst champion said on the broadcast.

"Car's back in the garage, it seems to be all straight, so we're pretty grateful for that.

"We looked really good there for a sec, obviously coming up on the back of Kai, which he'd done, too. We were probably a lap shy of swapping the cars until the Safety Car came out.

"I'm sure it would've been a lot more of a different story. But hey, that's just racing. Sometimes it's not your day. Sometimes we just got caught out, got roughed up quite a bit, and then felt like the rear tyres were gone.

"So yeah, just unfortunate, but that's the way it is sometimes."

Payne just needs to keep Feeney within sight on Sunday to win the Sprint Cup, but admitted his championship position somewhat kept him honest. Brown, Kostecki and Allen all had nothing to lose, and as it were, Payne lost out.

Remarkably, it ended a 12 race run of top five finishes for Payne, dating back to the Tasmania opener in May.

"It's just hard because we are in the position we're in, in the championship," Payne said.

"You're racing some of the other guys who are very desperate for points, and it's just a wish wash of emotions out there. Everyone's trying to scrap for every piece of tarmac there is.

"That's just what we're all dealing with, unfortunately. It's not unfortunately, it's just racing. But yeah, we got roughed up a bit, pretty hard, especially at the last corner, and the thing started smoking, and just didn't really have anything from then on.

"Didn't get a clean restart. So that's it. That's the script for us Saturday, unfortunately."

The final day of the Repco Sprint Cup begins with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 10:45am local time.