DEWALT Racing’s Anton De Pasquale has narrowly missed a Grand Final berth after failing to defeat Repco Supercars Championship leader Matt Payne in Race 34 at Sandown.
It was a dominant performance by the top seed heading into the Adelaide Grand Final, with Payne leading from start to finish in his Penrite Racing Ford Mustang.
A late challenge by De Pasquale provided some hope for Team 18 when Payne was negotiating lap traffic, but it all came too late and the runner up slot was not enough for Chevrolet’s final hope to progress to the Grand Final.
Behind the lead pair, PremiAir Racing’s decision to replace Declan Fraser with Cooper Murray is being justified after he qualified and finished third.
Broc Feeney secured his place in the Grand Final by scoring fourth for Red Bull Ampol Racing ahead of Chaz Mostert, who moved from 11th to the top five to assure his title defence continues and Toyota is represented at the last stage of the season at its maiden attempt.
Thomas Randle led the Monster Castrol Racing assault in sixth from the knocked out Will Brown, the R&J Batteries Racing Supra of Andre Heimgartner, PremiAir Racing’s Jayden Ojeda and Brodie Kostecki’s Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustang.
Kostecki had already qualified into the Grand Final courtesy of his victory on Saturday and it was lucky as Race 34 proved tough after a drive through penalty was handed down due to a start procedure infraction.
It was a largely uneventful race, but there was work to do for Mostert, Brown and Cam Waters, but the Monster Castrol Racing driver was unable to make progress like his rivals.
All the contenders needing to make ground went long in their stints as Mostert moved up six positions and Brown a race-high 12.
For Mostert, it was crucial as he prevented De Pasquale from progressing by just 17-points and ensured Toyota is represented on Grand Final weekend.
Brown’s spin on Saturday proved costly and qualifying 19th made his job too hard, while Waters didn’t have the speed all race to make any impact on the Finals battle to finish 15th.
Next up for the Repco Supercars Championship is the bp Adelaide Grand Final on November 26-29.