Matt Payne and Garth Tander gave Grove Racing and Ford a dramatic victory in a 2025 Bathurst 1000 that was hit with combined circumstances at Mount Panorama on Sunday.
A race that began beneath good blue skies grew to become a struggle for survival when unhealthy climate rolled in, turning the 6.213km circuit into an ice rink. After six security automobile interventions, the race got here right down to a three-car practice, sliding round in near-darkness and all in rivalry for the win.
With 5 laps to go, Cooper Murray appeared like giving Erebus Motorsport a fairytale second successive win. He held a slim lead from James Golding however at Flip 2, Golding’s PremiAir Chevrolet Camaro tapped Murray’s similar automobile right into a half-spin, sending Murray into fourth – and elevating Payne into the lead.
Golding was penalised 5 seconds and although he regained the lead on the street with a lap to go, Payne saved his cool to take the victory. Into the void created by the incident vaulted David Reynolds, the 2017 race winner coming from effectively exterior the highest 10 after his co-driver Lee Holdsworth led mid-race, solely to be caught out by pit technique when the climate rolled in.
Golding with veteran co-driver David Russell was labeled third forward of Murray, who in his second Bathurst 1000 look marked himself as a person to observe – as did his rookie co-driver, Jobe Stewart.
“That final [stint], within the moist, after I obtained within the automobile, it felt like without end,” mentioned Payne, who struggled in qualifying, leaving Tander to start out from 18th.
“I noticed Jimmy get into the facet of Cooper, I form of predicted that was going to occur. I used to be working out of tyres on the finish however this win, I’m going to take it!”
Matthew Payne, Garth Tander, Grove Racing Ford Mustang GT
Picture by: Edge Photographics
Tander was delighted together with his sixth win, and his first in a Ford.
“This man, tall Kiwis at Bathurst!” he mentioned. “These final 40-50 laps, the best way he managed that final lap, that was a severely spectacular drive.”
In per week through which an engine parity controversy was a lot talked about, six Chevrolets adopted the profitable Ford dwelling.
Russell paid tribute to his co-driver Golding, who’s leaving the Grove staff on the finish of the season.
“What a mega effort, beneath these treacherous circumstances.
Holdsworth described the race as “an absolute blinder, congratulations to the Grove boys.”
Reynolds mentioned his automobile was “on hearth” and with out the rain, “we’d have completed one [place] greater!”
David Reynolds, Staff 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Picture by: Bob Gloyn Pictures
The race was wanting like a shoot-out between Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Ryan Wooden and Broc Feeney, who had been separated by a dozen seconds with 40 laps to go. However on newly-changed moist tyres, the dearth of temperature caught Feeney out and he planted the Triple Eight Chevrolet into the tyre wall at Forrest’s Elbow.
There was nothing however heartbreak for many of the favoured groups. Triple Eight needed to accept sixth and seventeenth, with Broc Feeney wanting like he was in rivalry for a win till he discovered the barrier on the surface of the Forrest’s Elbow nook. By the point the automobile was pulled he was a lap down and he and Jamie Whincup fought a stable comeback beneath the circumstances.
Will Brown likewise appeared like difficult the leaders after charging from exterior the highest 10, however a number of off-road moments dropped him down the order.
Each of the Walkinshaw Andretti United Fords struck issues. Chaz Mostert needed to abandon his automobile with an engine downside earlier than mid-race, and the Ryan Wooden/Jayden Ojeda Mustang chugged into the pit lane when a crankshaft sensor failed with barely 20 laps to go whereas working second – and searching just like the automobile to beat.
The day become a horror story for the pole-sitting Kostecki/Hazelwood Ford, with a clutch downside, {an electrical} situation that required a driver change after which Kostecki copping a pitlane drive-through penalty after hitting Kai Allen’s Ford from behind. After two journeys throughout the grass the pole automobile was labeled 18th.
His fellow front-row qualifier Cam Waters likewise struggled, his co-driver Mark Winterbottom protecting robust with the leaders till he was caught on slick tyres when the rain got here. He ran off the street at Forrest’s Elbow and after pitting for repairs, dropped a lap earlier than getting it again beneath a wave-around, and was labeled twelfth.
The Supercars will now head for the Gold Coast for 2 250km races, the primary of the inaugural Finals sequence, on 24-25 October.
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