Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: First Lap crash leaves Matt Payne last at Albert Park

Saturday, 7 March 2026

First Lap crash leaves Matt Payne last at Albert Park

Credit to Supercars

Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Oils Ford) finished last after a 2-car crash at Albert Park. The finish was the 4th of his career and came in his 96th start.

Matt Payne is in his 4th full-time season, and has run all season with Grove Racing. Despite 5 wins last year, Payne didn’t race in the Grand Final after a late-race crash with Cameron Waters. Payne has been a championship contender this year. Four podiums, and three consecutive 2nd places finishes.

Payne was 10th in Practice 1. He rose to 7th in Practice 2. He stayed 7th in Qualifying.

Ryan Wood (#2 Truck Assist Toyota) started last after a qualifying miscue.

The first incident happened when Cameron Hill (#14 Dare Chevrolet) bumped Zach Bates (#10 Bendix Chevrolet) into Jayden Ojeda (#31 Mr. Umami/Nulon Chevrolet).

The contact spun Ojeda out, briefly leaving him last.

The second incident happened out of Turn 2. Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Oils Ford) and James Golding (#7 Cooldrive Distribution Ford) made contact. Both cars fired into the fence, terminally damaging Payne’s car. Payne’s car limped to Turn 4. This triggered the Safety Car.

More carnage later that lap. Will Brown (#888 Red Bull/Ampol Ford) bumped Jack LeBrocq (#4 Sherrin Rentals Chevrolet) into Cooper Murray (#99 Total Energies Chevrolet).

The contact sent Murray into the sand.

Secondary contact between LeBrocq and Murray damaged the steering on Murray’s car, losing 3 laps in repairs.

The lap after the restart, Ryan Wood (#2 Truck Assist/Mobil 1 Toyota) bumped Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Ford) into the fence at Turn 7.

The incident terminally damaged Randle’s car.

It also led to a second safety car.

On lap 11 at Turn 4, Will Brown (#888 Red Bull/Ampol Ford) spun into Aaron Cameron (#3 Cooldrive Distribution Ford), sending both cars to pit road. Both drivers lost a lap in repairs.

The Bottom Five

Matt Payne	0 Laps	Crash
Thomas Randle	7 Laps	Crash
Cooper Murray	12 Laps	Running
Will Brown	14 Laps	Running
Aaron Cameron	14 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Cooper Murray	1	3	4
2	Aaron Cameron	1	1	2
3T	Chaz Mostert	1	1	1
3T	James Golding	1	1	1
3T	Jackson Walls	1	1	1
3T	Matt Payne	1	1	1
7T	Macauley Jones	0	3	4
7T	Jobe Stewart	0	3	4
9T	Andre Heimgartner	0	1	1
9T	Kai Allen	0	1	1
9T	Thomas Randle	0	1	1
12T	Rylan Gray	0	0	2
12T	Will Brown	0	0	2
14T	Jayden Ojeda	0	0	1
14T	Ryan Wood	0	0	1
14T	Declan Fraser	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Driver	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Blanchard Racing Team	2	2/2	3/2	4/2
2	Erebus Motorsports	2	1/2	6/2	8/2
3	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	1/2	1/2	2/2
4	Overdrive/RBR Racing	2	1/2	1/2	1/2
5	Grove Racing	2	1/2	2/2	2/2
6	Brad Jones Racing	3	1/3	3/3	5/3
7	Premair Racing	2	0	2/2	3/2
8	Tickford Racing	2	0	1/2	2/2
9	Red Bull Racing	2	0	0	2/2
10	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	0	1/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Ford	11	3/11	6/11	8/11
2	Chevrolet	8	2/8	10/8	15/8
3	Toyota	5	1/5	3/5	5/5

No comments:

Post a Comment

How Juniorgeneric defines a Last-Place finisher

Australian V8 LASTCAR'S Official Definition of a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF)

For the purposes of the Australian V8 LASTCAR championship rankings and statistics, a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF) is a driver(s) who, after qualifying for a V8 Supercars Championship Points-Paying race, the result must be confirmed from official sources, or unofficial sources failing that. Only one driver (or two in a endurance race) can be classified as the LPF for that race.

Meeting those requirements, the LPF can be any driver classified as such for any reason, including, but not limited to.
1) A "did not start" although it should be noted that there is a difference between my definition of "did not start" and Brock Beard's definition of "Did not Start".
For example, in Bathurst 2015 Chazz Mostert and Cameron Waters' #6 Pepsi Max Ford had a huge accident during practice that injured Mostert and all but wrote off the car. Car #6 was withdrawn, and therefore I don't count Mostert and Waters as finishing last. Under Brock Beard's definition, however, Mostert and Waters would have finished last instead of David Wall and Chris Pither.
2) An entrant who encounters an event once the race has started which prevents the driver(s) from finishing ahead of any other qualified entrants, including both DNFs and drivers who finish under power but laps down*

*Only when all the cars in the race are running ahead of the LPF

3) A decision to “start and park” the driver’s entry (Extremely rare in V8 Supercars)
(4) a disqualification handed down by V8 Supercars and/or track officials that subsequently classifies the driver(s) in the final position behind the unofficial LPF.

Australian V8 LASTCAR shall not consider the LPF as anything else, including but not limited too
1) Any DNQ's
2) Any driver's who's car withdrew before the race start.
3)The lowest-ranked driver who finishes the race under power (unless all cars finished under power, actually quite common in V8 Supercars)
4) A driver(s) who finished last initially, however post-race disqualifications usurped the spot.
5) A driver(s) who may be catagorised as finishing last for exhibition events (I may bring these back at some point in the near future, I need more accurate numbers for the events before I start them up again)
6) Anything in non-V8 Supercar Main game (again, insufficent historical data)
7) A driver who was running last when the checkered flag fell, however because they greeted the checkered flag but a drive who was in front of them at the end of the race, however was not running at the end of the race. In that instance the driver who doesn't finish the race will fall behind the driver whom is still running at the end of the race.

In the rare event where official results or a preponderance of unofficial results are later updated with more accurate information about who was the LPF for that event, Australian V8 LASTCAR rankings and statistics shall be updated to reflect that change.