Matt Payne heads Grove Racing 1-2 in eventful final Christchurch race

Matt Payne headed home Grove Racing team-mate Kai Allen in an eventful fourth and final Supercars Championship race of the weekend at Christchurch in New Zealand.

Payne made a strong start from pole to claim the lead while Team 18 driver Anton De Pasquale was slow off the blocks and dropped from second to fourth.

Triple Eight driver Will Brown snatched second place while Allen made a lightning start from sixth to claim third heading into Turn 1.

The safety car was called into action at the end of the first lap following a incident between Jackson Walls, Jobe Stewart, Ryland Gray and Aaron Cameron.

The race resumed on lap four as Toyota driver Ryan Wood attacked De Pasquale for fourth place into Turn 2, resulting in contact between the two which allowed Broc Feeney up to fourth and Brodie Kostecki fifth.

And there was further heartbreak for Wood as he was forced to retire from eighth place with seven laps left due to an engine issue.

This brought out the safety car and the field was released again with three laps left.

With just two laps left, Kostecki went on the inside of Chaz Mostert in the fight for fourth place.

The two made contact and Mostert then showed Kostecki off the track, sending the Ford driver into a spectacular spin across the track which forced Brown to take evasive action across the grass.

Mostert was able to continue in fourth but was handed a 30-second penalty for the incident which dropped him down to 17th place, one place ahead of Kostecki.

Payne won the race with a margin of just over a second over his team-mate Allen while Feeney was third.

James Golding managed to avoid the chaos to finish fourth ahead of Cameron Waters and Brown.

The next Supercars Championship race weekend is the Tasmania Super 440 on May 22-24.