300km/h in near darkness: Bathurst 1000 drivers detail ‘scary’ final stages

4 hours ago 3

New Zealand young gun Matt Payne has set his sights on the Supercars championship after winning what has been described as the greatest Bathurst 1000 of all time on Sunday.

Payne and veteran co-driver Garth Tander prevailed in an epic finish on a day of carnage, after persistent rain transformed the Mt Panorama circuit into an ice rink mid-race.

After almost seven hours of racing, four seconds separated the first three placegetters. Six of the 27 starters were unable to finish, either crashing out or suffering mechanical failure.

Payne emerged with his first Peter Brock Trophy, while for Tander it was a sixth victory at the Australian motorsport mecca. Both agreed it was a wild ride but were thrilled to win a race that will be remembered for decades.

“I’ll always look back and see 2014 [Bathurst race] as one of the best I’ve watched, and hopefully this year can go down as somewhere on par with that,” Payne said. “I think that would be pretty epic.”

Tander, who has competed in 28 Bathurst 1000s, stopped short of labelling Sunday’s race the best ever.

Matt Payne crosses the line in near darkness on Sunday.

“You can go back, way back over the journey of Bathurst, and there’s some pretty special races along the way ... Bathurst always delivers something special,” he said.

Runner-up Dave Reynolds gave an insight into the challenge drivers faced when he declared after the race: “It was so dark. We’re doing 300km/h and I can’t even see anything.

“Who’s in front of me, who’s beside me, I’ve got no idea. It was just scary.”

He added with a laugh, “I’ve got kids now. I’ve got things to live for.”

Will Brown had to deal with a bonnet issue at Mt Panorama on Sunday.

Payne agreed with that assessment of the conditions, explaining that as well as “rivers” running across the track that caused cars to aquaplane, there was fog across the top of the mountain.

“Look, it was pretty hairy,” he said. “There was a time there, where the track was very wet.

“It was getting pretty sketchy with a lot of the rivers running across the road … you had to drive on a very tiny piece of road to try and keep the car on the track and not make any mistakes.

“I think everyone made one or two during those last few laps.”

Matt Payne during the frantic final phase of the Bathurst 1000 on Sunday.

The 23-year-old from Auckland said having to concentrate intensely for such a long period was “very, very draining”.

The victory consolidated the Penrite Ford driver’s grasp on second position in the championship, as the series heads into its inaugural finals campaign.

Three play-off races will be held at Gold Coast, Sandown, and Adelaide, and the top-10 drivers will all have a shot at overtaking series leader Broc Feeney.

“That would definitely be the ultimate goal for us,” Payne said of winning the title.

“Bathurst was always very high on our list when I first joined Supercars ... but the championship has always been the ultimate goal.

“At the moment, we’re just doing everything we can to work towards that and try and knock that out.”

Payne’s only minor disappointment at Bathurst was that he didn’t cross the finish line first. He came in just behind James Golding, having been made aware that the Victorian had incurred a five-second penalty.

That meant Payne didn’t need to take any unnecessary risks and overtake on the last lap.

“I didn’t really want to let him go, I really wanted to win it outright, you know, obviously be first across the line ... [but] I just had to give him the position,” he said. “Dave [Reynolds] was so close behind me, we had to focus on that. ”