Matt Payne has won a dramatic New Zealand doubleheader finale at Ruapuna, but there was heartbreak for hometown driver Ryan Wood to prevent him from winning the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.
Payne led home a Penrite Racing 1-2 as Kai Allen secured second ahead of JR Memorial Trophy winner Broc Feeney despite a late safety car providing an opportunity to attack.
Feeney’s success came after a late-race engine failure forced Wood into retirement and to lose his grasp on the JR Memorial Trophy following a successful round at Taupo.
Wood’s engine failure set up a three-lap shootout at the end, with Chaz Mostert penalised 30s for contact that spun Brodie Kostecki through the infield and across the circuit as the field narrowly avoided the stricken Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustang.
Drama began at the start when Cam Waters was forced to start from pit lane after a starter motor failure, but the real action occurred when the field entered Turn 8.
A bad start for Aaron Cameron put him back in the pack, which resulted in his retirement when he was involved in an incident with rookies Jackson Walls and Rylan Gray.
Thomas Randle also received significant damage to his Monster Castrol Racing Mustang and lost a lap, while the safety car was called to clean top the mess.
Payne had made a great start, but Wood’s start was poor and he immediately made ground on the restart by passing Anton De Pasquale at Turn 2.
Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Will Brown earned the wrath of race control when he pushed Allen onto the grass exiting Turn 10, with the latter taking the position during the pits stops due to an undercut.
Payne was completing his domination from Race 12 to lead Allen after his stop by more than 4s.
Movers included Feeney to third ahead of teammate Brown and a remarkable drive from reigning champion Chaz Mostert as green rear tyres allowed him to climb to fourth.
Allen encountered slight trouble on his return to the race after his second stop when he encountered the Brad Jones Racing Toyota of Cam Hill when re-joining, but he was let free when the Supra pitted next lap.
Despite Wood’s engine failure bringing out the safety car, Payne was able to take his second victory of the weekend ahead of Allen, Feeney, Blanchard Racing Team’s James Golding and Waters rounding out the top five after a mega drive.
Brown was sixth ahead of Matt Stone Racing’s Jack Le Brocq, Andre Heimgartner in the first Supra, Erebus Motorsport driver Cooper Murray and rookie Declan Fraser scored his first top 10 finish.
The next round of the Repco Supercars Championship is at Symmons Plains in Tasmania on May 22-24.