Source : the age
2:30pm: Last year’s winner Matt Payne has copped a penalty at the Bathurst 1000 due to an out-of-control tyre in the pit lane as the race passes the halfway mark.
Payne’s teammate, Will Davison, was forced to serve a pit-lane drive-through penalty, where he had to drive the length of pit lane at its 40km/h speed limit. That’s several times slower than the cars on the actual track to his right.
The pit-lane infringement occurred when a spare wheel rolled out of control behind Payne’s Ford Mustang. The situation was worsened when a team member of Grove Racing ran behind the car to stop it. That exceeded the number of people on the team allowed to cross the safety line in the pit lane. He was also not wearing a mandated fire suit.
It’s the second infringement for Payne after serving a five-second penalty for running another driver, David Reynolds, off the track earlier in the race.
Grove Racing chief executive Brenton Grove told Kayo Sport, “We’re doing a pretty good job of throwing this race away at the moment.”
Meanwhile, there’s been no change in the top three after the first pit stop as the drivers reach the 81st lap and the halfway point of the race.
Dick Johnson Racing remains in the lead with Todd Hazelwood driving while Aaron Seton is behind him with care Triple Eight in third.
1:50pm: Dick Johnson Racing is in the lead for the first time in the race after the cars completed their second pit stops and are being forced to contend with tyre blistering as the track temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius.
Todd Hazelwood is driving for Dick Johnson after teammate Brodie Kostecki was jumped by Triple Eight’s Will Brown, who moved from fifth to first position after the first round of pit stops.
By lap 63, Matt Stone Racing has moved into second with Aaron Seton back in the driver’s seat, while the Triple Eight car has dropped back to third.
Macualey Jones spun out his Toyota GR Supra and had to complete a three-point turn to again be moving in the right direction. The incident did not trigger a safety car, but there were delays for the rest of the field.
As the temperature on the course heats up, teams are contending with shortened lifespan for their tyres.
1.15pm: The first leadership change of the 61st Bathurst 1000 has Triple Eight Race Engineering in the lead after Will Brown jumped from fifth to first in the first round of pit stops.
With 26 cars starting the 161 laps of the Mount Panorama circuit, Matt Stone Racing held the early advantage in the race for the Peter Brock Trophy after driver Zach Bates secured pole position for the team on Saturday – the first time a rookie had done so since 2001.
His co-driver, Aaron Seton, maintained the lead before coming in for a pit stop on lap 25, one ahead of Dick Johnson Racing in second and Triple Eight in fifth.
But after the first stops, Bates dropped to third and Brodie Kostecki, who took over for DJR, was jumped by Brown on the way out.
Further down the field, full-time Supercars driver Kai Allen got off to a strong start for Grove Racing against the co-drivers, recording the fastest lap and gaining five spots on his starting position, from 11th to sixth.
Last year’s Bathurst winner Matt Payne was given a five-second penalty for forcing David Reynolds off the track while overtaking him. Reynolds subsequently called Payne “not the sharpest tool in the shed”.
By the 40th lap, Bates was holding on to third position despite glancing a wall.
He shocked spectators on Friday when he completed the fastest lap of the circuit in the current generation of car, and becoming the first driver to break the two-minute and four-second barrier when claiming provisional pole position.
He backed up that performance in Saturday’s top-10 shoot-out, upsetting Kostecki, who was attempting to become the first driver to start four successive Bathurst 1000s from pole position. Instead, the 22-year-old Bates turned his provisional pole into the real thing.
He is the first rookie since Marcos Ambrose in 2001 to start from No.1 on the grid, and just the third in history to do so.
Payne began the race in 10th position after finishing last in the top 10 shootout, while defending Supercars champion, Chaz Mostert, started from 16th.
A tribute to Brock, the nine-time Bathurst winner who died 20 years ago, took place before the race, which included a rendition of John Williamson’s True Blue.
The anniversary year has attracted more spectators than usual to the mountain; many waited more than a week in their campsites at the summit of the mountain to watch the Gen3 Supercars flash past them.
When the race started at 11.30am, the temperature on Mount Panorama was a warm 25 degrees with clear skies.
