New Zealand driver Matt Payne has continued his impressive form in the Supercars championship.
Hot on the heels of his second Supercars victory at Townsville two weeks ago, Payne finished runner-up and fourth in Races 15 and 16 of the season at the Sydney SuperNight event over the weekend.
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The 21-year-old from Auckland, in his fourth season with Penrite Racing, has now racked up four straight top-four finishes and solidified his fifth placing in the drivers' standings with eight races remaining.
After off-the-pace qualifying runs at Eastern Creek, Payne marched through the grid in both races, moving up from 10th to second in race one and 11th to fourth in race two.
Using a one-stop strategy, Payne pitted on lap 23 and took over at the front again when the leaders went down pit-lane a second time between laps 30 and 35, leading Chaz Mostert by 14 seconds.
The margin between Payne and Mostert dipped under five seconds with eight laps to go, and he was within two seconds with six laps remaining. Mostert eventually caught and overtook Payne in turn six with four laps left.
Payne finished 2.6412 seconds behind Mostert, who won both races under the lights at Sydney Motorsport Park, while Penrite teammate and fellow Kiwi Richie Stanaway was 16th.
Of the other New Zealand drivers in the field, Andre Heimgartner crossed in 13th, rookie Ryan Wood 13th and Jaxon Evans 19th.
On Sunday, Payne made what Supercars legend and commentator Mark Scaife described as the "move of the year" to propel him up the field.
On lap seven, Payne moved to the inside of Wood and Nick Percat coming into the speedy turn one, clearing Percat but then going door-to-door with Wood at nearly 200kph, with some contact, to move up to seventh.
"I just saw the closing speed was so much and I thought, 'I'm gonna be able to clear Percat by the time I get into Turn 1’. I didn't realise Woody was gonna be so brave and just bowl around the outside," Payne said.
"It was probably the most intense move I've ever had in a race car. It was butt-clenching stuff ... Skaifey said it was the move of the year. I was pretty stoked on that, it makes me happy."
Race 16 was a bad one for the other Kiwis on the grid, with Wood finishing 16th, Heimgartner 19th, Evans 20th and Stanaway 21st.
The Supercars championship takes a break during the Olympics window, picking back up with the Tasmanian SuperSprint at Symmons Plains Raceway on August 17-18.
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