Matt Payne and Garth Tander wins eventful dry-wet Bathurst 1000 race

The Grove Racing duo of Matt Payne and Garth Tander won the 2025 Bathurst 1000 race where changeable weather and six safety car sessions played the lead role.

The race started under the sunshine as pole-sitter Todd Hazelwood (Kostecki) took the lead ahead of Mark Winterbottom (Waters).

The first major drama of the race came on lap 55 as Tony D’Alberto (Davison) hit the wall at Forrest’s Elbow and retired from the race, triggering the first safety car period.

The next big blow came two laps after the restart as the engine of Chaz Mostert’s Ford Mustang resigned at The Chase, bringing the safety car back out on track.

The rain hit the circuit on lap 65 which saw several drivers going off, including Chevrolet driver Nash Morris who got stuck in the gravel and triggered another safety car period.

Disaster then struck title contender Broc Feeney who went off into the barrier at Forrest’s Elbow with 38 laps left, losing a lap on the leaders as the safety car headed out on track once more.

Feeney and co-driver Jamie Whincup were able to recover ground to finish the race in sixth place.

The woes continued for Triple Eight as Will Brown, who fought for the top five, first went off at Hell Corner and then hit the tyre wall at Griffins Bend with 30 laps left of the race.

The incident saw the safety car back on track as Brown with co-driver Scott Pye dropped down to 17th place.

The race turned into a real three-car thriller with just six laps left between Erebus Motorsport driver Cooper Murray, PremiAir Racing’s James Golding and Payne.

Golding went on the inside of Murray into Griffins Bend and the two made contact, sending Murray into a half-spin and down to fourth place while Payne went past both into the lead.

Golding then fought back to claim the lead at The Cutting with two laps left, but the stewards handed him a five-second penalty for the incident with Murray.

The fight between the leading duo brought Team 18 driver David Reynolds into the fight, with Payne having to shut the door hard on him while Golding got past to the lead.

Golding crossed the finishing line first but dropped down to finish third due to his penalty while Payne/Tander won the race less than a second ahead of Reynolds/Holdsworth.

Next up for the Supercars Championship field is the Gold Coast on October 24-25.