Record pace inflicts more Payne on TRS rivals

14 February 2021 / Event

Matthew Payne secured two more pole positions as his stranglehold on the 2021 Castrol Toyota Series continued on the final day of racing at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon.

Payne had wanted to make a mark in his final qualifying session of the 2021 championship and did so in some style, putting in a series of laps that were streets ahead of his talented opposition before a magical final run that saw him clock his best lap in the dying seconds of the fifteen minute session.

With two races on Sunday, including the Denny Hulme Trophy feature race, the single qualifying session produces two grids. A driver's fastest time is their qualifying time for the feature race and their second fastest time is used to form the grid for the first race of the day later this morning.

Payne's pace as the session progressed meant he locked out the pole position for both races with ease, enjoying a margin of four tenths of a second over Peter Vodanovich, a huge gap by Castrol TRS standards. His best lap - a 1.03.002 - was the best lap ever recorded by the Toyota FT60 at the Manfeild track.

It was a superb performance and after the session he revealed he had been aiming even higher - for a sub 1 minute 3 second lap.

“I was pushing on the whole session," he said. "It was pretty hard work, I backed off with about two to go to cool the tyres down and to try find some more out of it. On that last lap, I was pretty much 100%. I wanted to get a 1.02, but wasn’t going to happen today.”

Second, third and fourth on the feature race grid were covered by just a few hundredths of a second with Peter Vodanovich claiming the other front row slot ahead of Billy Frazer and Kaleb Ngatoa on the second row. Conrad Clark and Chris Vlok will line up on the third row for the feature race.

Frazer's second best time gives him a front row start for the morning race, with Ngatoa and Vodanovich in third and fourth and Clark and Vlok on row three again.

Castrol Toyota Racing Series - Round 3 Manfeild - Qualifying 2

Race 3 grid