Payne confident of repeat successes
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 10 July 2025
Matt Payne is in the middle of a career-best Supercars season, which means he carries more confidence as he arrives at a happy hunting ground in Townsville.
Having finished outside of the top 10 just twice throughout the 2025 season, Payne sits a strong third in the Sprint Cup standings.
The Grove Racing Kiwi has taken a significant step forward from 2024 where he was fast at Townsville.
Payne took Grove Racing’s first win at the North Queensland street circuit in the 2024 finale in impressive style, with smart strategy seeing the #19 shoot up nine spots from 10th on the grid.
For the first time since 2021, Townsville will host a three-race weekend with an extra race scheduled on Friday afternoon, and Payne is looking forward to the challenge.
“It is going to be really cool,” he said.
“Three races make it a super busy weekend, and it will be a little bit draining, but we all wanted more racing, so it is a good thing.
“The shorter race means you will have to think about it a bit differently compared to the 200km races.”
Payne is confident that success both throughout 2025 and on these streets last year should translate to some solid form.
However, he is aware changes such as the format, tyre and competitiveness mean it will be much harder to return to the top step of the podium.
“This was one of the tracks we were really strong last year,” Payne said.
“We were not particularly strong in qualifying, but that has been something we have worked on a bit this year.
“Our race pace was really good, but the Soft tyre will change things a bit.
“It will be interesting to see what the pace is like and how everyone rolls out.
“Kerbs are the biggest aspect because they are on every single corner so you need a car with good compliance.
“But the racing here was one of the best races I have seen in terms of the Saturday race last year.
“It has been extremely close this year so it will be a factor.
“The style and layout present plenty of opportunities.”
Although Broc Feeney already appears set to be the runaway winner of the Sprint Cup, Payne has his eyes locked in on stealing second from reigning champion Will Brown, who sits just 14 points ahead and found trouble at this track last year.
“We have had a good run so far this year and the points have been close but Broc has skipped away a bit in the last couple of rounds,” Payne said.
“We are just behind Will and will be looking to jump ahead of him.
“It all depends on how the racing goes because there will be a few mix ups from the 5-12 positions.
“We just need to stay ahead of that and score big points.”
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