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Payne reflects on 'incredible' Bathurst win
Nicholas Quinlan • October 13th, 2025 1:33 pm
Matt Payne has reflected on what is the biggest win of his racing career following his victory at the Bathurst 1000 on Sunday.
In one of the greatest races Mount Panorama has seen, the combination of Payne and Garth Tander for Penrite Racing managed to rise from 18th to win the great race, which had plenty of rain and safety cars throughout.
For Payne, it marks his first win in the near seven-hour race, while Tander now ties Mark Skaife and Larry Perkins for six wins, which is equal third on the all-time wins list.
Speaking on his thoughts about the race, the Kiwi who drove for the last stint admitted that the conditions only got harder as the race progressed, particularly in the last five laps.
“It was really tough,” Payne said on SEN’s Breakfast.
“There were points where the conditions were super sketchy; there were a lot of rivers running across the track and everything going on.
“Especially in the last five laps, it was getting really foggy over the mountain, so it had everything in it.
“I was lost for words when I got out. You’ve been battling for so long and finally got the win.
“It was just incredible.”
The win also marks the first time that a Ford has claimed the Peter Brock Trophy since 2019.
This was despite there being plenty of criticism led by pole sitter Brodie Kostecki and the Shell V-Power Racing Team about the Fords having a disadvantage to the Camaros due to their engines not being able to produce as much horsepower when driving.
But the Kiwi said that the issue of speed wasn’t on top of mind for them.
“Nah, not even an issue for us,” Payne said.
“We were just focusing on ourselves the whole weekend.
"We didn’t have a particularly strong Friday, so we needed to find some speed in our cars.
“And that itself, I think we did a really good job in, because even in the dry, we were still pretty fast.
“But it certainly didn’t go through my head at all yesterday.”
The Supercars season will now turn its attention to its inaugural finals series, in which Payne is one of the 10 drivers participating.
That begins on October 24 with the Gold Coast 500.
SEN will have live coverage of the main race on October 26 through the SEN app and its radio network.
