Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
On the weekend of April 11-13 was the ITM Taupo Super 440, round 3 of the 2025 Supercars championship.
It was held at the Taupo International Motorsport Park in Taupo, New Zealand.
Taupo raceway was first opened in 1959 by the Taupo Car Club. It was basically a dirt track in the countryside with the volcanic mountain Mount Tauhara in the background.
After changing hands in 2022 and finally in 2024 hosted it’s first Australian V8-Supercars event. After this event (in 2025) Supercars will be hosting next year’s NZ event at a different circuit.
This event started on Friday the 11th of April and the weather was sunny all weekend.
In the pre-race sessions:
- Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Practice 1
- Ryan Wood was fastest in Practice 2
- Matt Payne was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 8 Matt Payne started on pole position with Brodie Kostecki alongside him.
Matt Payne got the jump off the start line and led into turn 1 for the first of 37 laps.
Cooper Murray and Cameron Hill came into contact on lap 3. Cameron Hill was later deemed at fault and issues a 15 second time penalty.
After numerous attempts Ryan Wood finally passed Will Davison for 4th place.
Chaz Mostert was turned around by Thomas Randle at turn 1 dropping Mostert from 7th to 21st place. Thomas Randle received a 15 second time penalty for his actions.
Matt Payne then did the fastest lap of the race 1.28.075 seconds. He had a 1.3 second lead over Brodie Kostecki in second place.
Nick Percat was the first to pit on lap 9.
Macauley Jones was slowing approaching turn 2 and finally came to a stop. The safety car was deployed to remove his car because it was in an awkward spot of the turn. Excepting the front runners the whole field took the opportunity to take their pit-stops. The pit lane was chaotic.
The restart was on lap 16 and Matt Payne still had control followed by Cameron Waters and Anton de Pasquale in 3rd place. Kostecki had lost 2nd place when he chose to pit while the race was under safety car.
Ryan Wood passed Thomas Randle for 5th place his next target was Jack le Brocq in 4th place.
It was the middle of the race and Cameron Waters was applying maximum pressure on Matt Payne for the lead.
With 9 laps remaining James Courtney gave Cooper Murray a helping hand off the track. The safety car was not needed so the race continued.
The leading cars remained the same. In the last laps Ryan Wood was desperately attacking Cam Waters for second place. With Waters on the defence, Matt Payne was able to keep well ahead of the two.
Matt Payne’s faultless driving took him over the finish line 4.1 seconds ahead of Cameron Waters. Ryan Wood was right on Waters’ tail just 0.797 seconds behind in 3rd place.
Results for Race 8:
1st Matt Payne – Grove Racing
2nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
3rd Ryan Wood – Walkinshaw Andretti United
In Race 9 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position alongside him was Chaz Mostert.
At the start of the race Chaz Mostert got the jump over Brodie Kostecki and led into turn 1 and 2 for the first of 37 laps.
Broc Feeney got away to an unbelievable start from the second row of the grid but soon lost the places he had gained. Will Brown gained 1 spot up to 4th.
Officials were busy investigating a false start for Matt Payne and further back in the pack there was contact between Cooper Murray and David Reynolds.
Brodie Kostecki stuck close to Chaz Mostert in the lead. On lap 18 Kostecki found a gap and used it to overtake Mostert.
In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert was driving aggressively to take back his lead from Brodie Kostecki. It was so aggressive that when Mostert passed Kostecki, Kostecki left the track onto the grass. He kept the chase on Mostert going.
Soon after the two leaders came into the pits. Kostecki made some sort of judgement error and hit the wall reasonably hard coming into pit lane. The right side of his car was pretty smashed in.
As the race was reaching its conclusion, Brodie Kostecki ran wide after a nudge from Chaz Mostert. Mostert stayed in the lead but the incident allowed Will Davison to slip past Kostecki.
With a clear track and clean air Mostert was able to build on his lead. In the end he crossed the finish line 6.476 seconds ahead of Will Davison in 2nd place. Brodie Kostecki managed to keep 3rd place and came across the line 2.715 seconds later.
Results for Race 9:
1st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
2nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team
3rd Brodie Kostecki – Shell V-Power Racing Team
In Race 10 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Anton de Pasquale alongside him.
As they took off Brodie Kostecki got the jump into turn 1 for the first of 61 laps. Anton de Pasquale ran wide and Kai Allen got turned around at turn 1 sending both down the order. Ryan Wood was trying to take the lead off Brodie Kostecki but with both drivers running wide, Cameron Hill was able to overtake them for the lead in one manoeuvre. Brodie Kostecki had now dropped down to 7th place.
Ryan Wood was later issued a time penalty for a driving infringement when trying to overtake Kostecki.
Matt Payne was in 2nd place and was in a prime spot to win the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy for the event. Thomas Randle passed Ryan Wood for 3rd place at turn 1 on lap 2.
On lap 5 the Ryan Wood recorded the fastest lap of the race, 128.5 seconds.
Kia Allen had smoke coming out of the right rear mud guard of car 26. He kept going until he had to come in for his pit stop.
Matt Payne took the race lead at turn 3 on lap 8 and was now followed by Thomas Randle while Cameron Hill dropped into 3rd place.
Further back Brodie Kostecki was keen to regain his position up the front and passed Anton de Pasquale for 6th place.
Macauley Jones was turned around by Cameron Waters on lap 11. Somehow, he managed to rescue himself without the safety car intervening.
The first car to pit was Will Brown in 10th place on lap 12. He returned to the track in 24th place.
In the middle of the race Matt Payne was leading by 1.4 seconds over Cameron Hill. Thomas Randle was back in third 1.9 seconds away from the race lead.
Towards the end of the race Matt Payne was looking strong to claim another victory for the weekend and therefore have enough points to claim the Jason Richards memorial trophy. He had enough of a lead so he wasn’t under immediate threat. He had a clear track and clean air. He only had to focus on maintain his speed and not making any errors of his own.
He crossed the finish line 3.194 seconds ahead of Cameron Hill. It was 5.094 seconds back to Chaz Mostert in 3rd place. After initially losing so much ground, Brodie Kostecki amazingly managed to climb back to 4th place ahead of Thomas Randle in 5th. Although the front runners were spread apart it was still a very exciting finish.
Results for Race 10:
1st Matt Payne – Grove Racing
2nd Cameron Hill – Matt Stone Racing
3rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.
The next event is the Snowy River Caravans Tasmania Super 440 May 9 – 11, 2025.
Till I catch ya next time, keep revving!
