Ford has swept the podium positions in the two opening Supercars races at Taupo Motorsport Park in New Zealand.
Matt Payne and Chas Mostert took their Ford Mustangs to victory lane in the races, leaving the Chevrolet Camaro drivers in their wake.
On the soft tyre, as opposed to the supersoft in use at the track for the first time, Payne led away from pole in the opening race and never looked back.
One significant takeaway from Payne's win – apart for the three-second margin of victory – was how Grove Racing dealt with an early safety car period. When most of the pack filed into the pitlane to make their mandatory pitstops, and some drivers were forced to stack behind their team-mates, Payne was waved around, taking his stop a lap later.
What was apparent was that Grove management was across the new regulation that required the drivers to stick to the same 80km/h limit as the safety car.
One of the drivers who may have had the speed to challenge the leader, Brodie Kostecki, was trapped in his Dick Johnson Racing pit bay for 10s, dropping him well down the leaderboard.
The order behind Payne was Cam Waters, who in finishing second seized back the championship points lead, ahead of a maiden podium for Ryan Wood (Walkinshaw Andretti United) and Anton De Pasquale (Team 18 Chevrolet).
Mostert and Kostecki then fought hard for the win in the second race, swapping position and some paint until Mostert got the upper hand, as Kostecki faded late in the race. The team suspected bent steering and in fact, as the 2023 champion slowed, he dropped to third place at the flag, losing the position to DJR team-mate Will Davison.
It was an oddly podium-less day for Triple 8, with both Will Brown and Broc Feeney struggling in Friday practice and neither Chevrolet challenging for the podium in either race. Neither driver made the top 10 in qualifying for the opener and Brown had to settle for fifth and seventh in the two races. Feeney had no speed in the opening race and was 15th but improved to fifth place in the afternoon after starting third.
After a strong Saturday, Waters has taken back the championship points lead from Brown, 573 to 561, with Feeney losing some ground. Payne has moved to fourth place.
Supercars will be back in action on Sunday, with a single race on the harder of Dunlop’s tyres over 61 laps.
