Champion
Matthew Payne with the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy.
Picture Bruce Jenkins
In the
process he added his name to an impressive list of former
TRS champions. An impressive 25% of the current F1 field are
TRS graduates and the FIA F2 and F3 championships are also
bristling with racers who’ve competed and won in TRS.
Matthew Payne could well be another significant graduate and
champion in years to come based on his dominance in
2021.
Payne has won five TRS races since Shane van
Gisbergen’s famous New Zealand Grand Prix victory at
Hampton Downs and is the most dominant champion in several
Picture
Tayler Burke
Two on-track
penalties totalling ten seconds were enough to relegate a
dominant Matthew Payne from first to second in Race 3 on
Sunday morning at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon – the
penultimate one in this year’s COVID-shortened
championship.
It meant Billy Frazer, who finished
second on the road, inherited the win. It was his first in
this year’s Castrol Toyota Racing Series.
Payne -
who had record pace in qualifying when setting his best laps
- pulled up to the start out of his grid box and incurred
the penalty immediately, meaning the first part of his race
Thursday, 11 February 2021, 2:08 pm
The 2021 Castrol Toyota Series will be remembered
as being unique in the COVID-19 world, but it has also seen
the emergence of a major new Kiwi racing talent in Matthew
Payne.
Against a field of established stars
at the New Zealand Grand Prix, Payne made his mark with a
trifecta of third place finishes. He went even better the
following weekend with two race wins from the two races
securing the Dorothy Smith Memorial Cup in the feature
race.
Matthew Payne leads the
TRS title chase with four races left.
Picture Bruce
Jenkins
It’s that startling form that sees the
Matthew
Payne topped qualifying at Hampton Downs for the second TRS
round.
Picture Bruce
Jenkins
The seven remaining cars
in the championship were covered by just seven tenths of a
second – ensuring both of the races on Saturday are likely
to be closely fought affairs.
With just fifteen
minutes available to clock a fast time and with only a few
tenths separating the seven drivers in Friday practice, it
was all to play for in the morning qualifying session on
Hampton Downs’ national circuit.
It was Conrad Clark
who was into his stride earliest and he topped the
timesheets for the first few minutes ahead of Kaleb Ngatoa.