Supercars News: Payne and Tander Storm to Epic Bathurst 1000 Triumph in Rain-Soaked Chaos

In a wet, wild, and wildly unpredictable Repco Bathurst 1000 that evoked memories of the legendary 2014 thriller, 23-year-old Kiwi sensation Matt Payne and six-time veteran Garth Tander delivered an unforgettable victory for Penrite Racing Ford—capping a 161-lap odyssey on Mount Panorama that lasted 6 hours, 52 minutes, and 14 seconds.

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Starting from a gritty 18th on the grid—the third-lowest victorious position in Great Race history—the unlikely duo overcame seven bp pulse Safety Car interruptions, relentless rain, and a flurry of crashes to snatch the Peter Brock Trophy by a razor-thin official margin of 0.958 seconds.

It was Payne’s maiden Bathurst win, making him the 67th different victor in the event’s storied run, and Tander’s record-tying sixth, drawing him level with icons Mark Skaife and Larry Perkins. Only Peter Brock (9), Jim Richards (7), and Craig Lowndes (7) sit ahead. For Ford, it marked a drought-ending first title since 2019; for Penrite, it was their breakthrough moment.

The finale was pure pandemonium. With 15 laps remaining, Cooper Murray and Jobe Stewart’s Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet had surged to the lead after a blistering restart, pulling clear of Payne and James Golding’s PremiAir Racing Camaro. Murray, the rookie revelation, masterfully defended against Payne’s probing attacks at Forrest’s Elbow and Griffins Bend, the pair trading door-handle blows in a drag race through The Chase that had fans on the edge of their seats. Payne even surfed through the grass on lap 153 after a massive slide, dropping to third and handing momentum back to Murray.

But the script flipped dramatically on lap 156. Golding, desperate to reclaim the front, lunged inside Murray at Griffins Bend—only to clip the Erebus car, sending it spinning into the barriers. The contact parted the Red Sea for Payne, who inherited the lead as stewards slapped Golding with a decisive five-second penalty.

Undeterred, Golding powered through The Chase to cross the line first, muscling past Payne and igniting a frantic final-lap duel. Reynolds, the late-charging Team 18 Mustang piloted by David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth, piled on the pressure, even making contact with Payne at The Cutting in a bid for the win. Payne held firm, refusing to yield an inch, while Golding’s penalty dropped him to third—clinging to the podium by just six-tenths over a heartbroken Murray, who salvaged fourth despite the late heartbreak.

“It’s absolutely insane,” Payne beamed from Pirtek Victory Lane, still buzzing from the adrenaline. “That last stint in the wet felt like forever—we kept getting Safety Cars stalling our momentum, and then I saw Jimmy [Golding] clip Cooper. I predicted something might happen and just threaded the needle through. I ran out of tires a bit at the end, but a win’s a win—we’ll take it. The guys have worked so damn hard; this is so cool for them.”

The race’s undercard was a graveyard for the favorites, turning what could have been a procession into a survival scramble. Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup crashed out early, as did Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Cam Waters/Mark Winterbottom combo and Tickford’s Will Brown/Scott Pye entry—Brown’s day unraveling spectacularly when he plowed into the wall at Griffins Bend, shedding his bonnet and wing.

Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard suffered a high-speed off at The Chase, while Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood endured a nightmare of mechanical gremlins and incidents that left their Erebus Supercar limping home. Even Ryan Wood and Jayden Ojeda’s Mobil 1 Truck Assist Ford, which had clawed to second, was cruelly robbed by a crank sensor failure in the closing stages—leaving a tearful Wood classified 19th but still scraping into the Finals Series.

PremiAir and Erebus had flirted with fairy-tale upsets throughout, with Golding storming to the lead on lap 129 after a bold dive at Griffins Bend and Murray leading the charge post-restart. But the Golding-Murray tangle cracked the door wide for Penrite. James Courtney’s Tickford Mustang, potentially in his Bathurst swansong, limped to the pits with gearbox woes from seventh, while Jaxon Evans backed into the wall at Sulman Park and Richie Stanaway wrecked at The Cutting—triggering the seventh and final Safety Car and bringing race engineer Andrew Gilliam to tears.

Reynolds and Holdsworth’s runner-up—0.9 seconds shy after a storming recovery—rounded out a podium for the ages, with Golding and David Russell’s demoted third sealing a bittersweet day for PremiAir. Murray and Stewart’s fourth was a gritty consolation, six-tenths off the podium, while Cameron Hill stunned with fifth—not enough to crack the Top 10 Shootout, missing by a gut-wrenching three points. Feeney staged a Herculean comeback to sixth, ahead of Andre Heimgartner, Kai Allen, Aaron Cameron, and Zach Bates in the top 10.

The triumph locked in Payne’s 2025 Ryco Enduro Cup crown, adding the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy from Taupo in April to his haul. It also finalized the inaugural Top 10 Shootout field for the Supercars Championship Finals Series on the Gold Coast (October 24-26):

2025 Repco Supercars Finals Series – Top 10 Drivers

1. Broc Feeney – 3175 pts
2. Matt Payne – 3145 pts
3. Will Brown – 3096 pts
4. Cam Waters – 3078 pts
5. Brodie Kostecki – 3066 pts
6. Chaz Mostert – 3057 pts
7. Anton De Pasquale – 3048 pts
8. Thomas Randle – 3039 pts
9. Ryan Wood – 3030 pts
10. Kai Allen – 3021 pts

Key Quote: In a year of Bathurst epics, this 2025 edition—marred by clouds shrouding the mountaintop and drama at every corner—stands tall as one for the history books. As Payne put it: “We came from the clouds to win it all.”

Full Bathurst 1000 Results