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Supercars

ITM Taupo Super 440 2026

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Hi to all you Supercars Fans Around the world!

On the weekend of April 10-12 was the ITM Taupo Super 440, round 3 of the 2026 Supercars championship. It was held at Taupo on the North Island of New Zealand.

Brodie Kostecki headed into the weekend as the series leader by 28 points over Cameron Waters.

David Reynolds reached a milestone at this event, starting his 500th race in Supercars. What an Achievement! Congratulations David.

The Taupo Super 440 had 3 races scheduled but by Saturday afternoon the weather warning for cyclone Vaianu heading directly to the area was received. The 3rd race set to run on Sunday was cancelled. A sensible thing to do but disappointing for the fans, nonetheless. Mind you, if they had to, most supercars fans would stand trackside through a cyclone in their undies if it wasn’t cancelled.

In the pre-race sessions:

  • Jack le Brocq was fastest in Practice 1
  • Ryan Wood was fastest in Practice 2
  • Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying

In Race 8 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Broc Feeney alongside him.

As they took off Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 37 laps. Broc Feeney tried to go around him at the first turn but realised it would ruin his approach to turn 2. It was a good attempt, but he had to pull back in the last second.

Kai Allen made contact with Rayan Wood just after turn 1. Allen lost 5 places and was down to 11th. Wood only dropped a single spot to 7th.

At turn 11 Kai Allen was getting into more trouble. He made contact with Aaraon Cameron causing him to spin and drop from 11th to 16th. His car was looking pretty shabby with the rear bumper hanging off.

Although still early in the race Kai Allen had to head to the pits to deal with the damage sustained.

By the middle of the race there were only 7 cars that were still yet to pit. Once they did Brodie Kostecki assumed the number 1 spot.

On lap 23 Broc Feeney recorded the fastest lap of the race, 129.330 seconds.

His teammate Will Brown had moved ahead of him to 2nd place while Chaz Mostert held 3rd. Feeney desperately wanted his spot back.

Broc Feeney battled with Chaz Mostert and eventually got past. Mostert then lost another spot to his own teammate, Ryan Wood. There were only 8 laps to go.

It wasn’t long before Ryan Wood took over Broc Feeney.

With 5 laps to go the leaders were spread out. Brodie Kostecki had a 4.1 second lead over Will Brown. Ryan Wood was another 5.1 seconds behind.

Somehow, Brodie Kostecki increased his lead and crossed the finish line with a 16.185 second win over Will Brown. Ryan Wood was only 0.347 seconds behind in third. Broc Feeney had fallen 6.914 seconds back into 4th place.

Race 8 results:

1st Brodie Kostecki – Shell V-Power Racing Team
2nd Will Brown – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd Ryan Wood – Truck Assist Racing

In Race 9 Ryan Wood started on pole position, alongside him was Will Brown.

Ryan Wood took the lead from the start line for the 1st of 60 laps.

At the front of the pack and still on the first lap James Golding was forced out wide by Chaz Mostert.

Leader Ryan Wood was followed by Will Brown, Broc Feeney, James Golding and then Chaz Mostert. Before the end of the lap Matt Payne overtook Chaz Mostert for 5th place.

The first car to pit was David Reynolds on lap 15.

Will Brown closed in on Ryan Wood for the race lead and was only 0.618 seconds behind.

Around lap 23 Broc Feeney pitted from second place. He rejoined in 8th place right behind Chaz Mostert in 7th. There were only 2 cars yet to pit, Brodie Kostecki and James Golding

When Brodie Kostecki finally pitted Ryan Wood assumed position number 1.

By the middle of the race Ryan Wood still had the lead with Will Brown trailing by 2.6 seconds.

Ryan Wood had to pit on lap 43 and Matt Payne followed him in for the second round of stops. Ryan Wood came back out in 8th place.

Towards the end of the end of the race Chaz Mostert had the lead and was followed by teammate Ryan Wood. Chaz Mostert is a fast and experienced driver. He could have easily defended his lead but instead chose to let Ryan Wood through and act as his guard.

With 9 laps left there was only 0.396 seconds between Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood. Broc Feeney was a further 4.292 seconds behind in third place but closing in fast.

Jackson Walls was in the garage with a broken right front suspension. The repair took too long and he never made it back out to the track. He was the only one to receive an NC (Not Complete).

Broc Feeney kept closing in on the leaders. Pretty soon he made a surprising pass on Mostert in 2nd place.

There were only a few laps remaining. I was wondering of Broc Feeney was going to catch the lead from Wood or was Chaz Mostert going to reclaim 2nd position from Feeney.

Ryan Wood had a few seconds lead and didn’t let it slip.

In the end Ryan Wood crossed the finish line with a 3.036 second win over Broc Feeney in second place. Chaz Mostert came in 3rd 2.476 seconds later.

Race 9 results:

1st Ryan Wood – TWG Racing
2nd Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd Chaz Mostert – TWG Racing

Ryan Wood will go down in history as the first one to take a win for Toyota in Supercars.

The next event is the ITM Christchurch Super 440 on Apr 17 – 19 2026.

I hope you will all join me.

Supercars

ITM Taupo Super 440 2025

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Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!

On the weekend of April 11-13 was the ITM Taupo Super 440, round 3 of the 2025 Supercars championship.

It was held at the Taupo International Motorsport Park in Taupo, New Zealand.

Taupo raceway was first opened in 1959 by the Taupo Car Club. It was basically a dirt track in the countryside with the volcanic mountain Mount Tauhara in the background.

After changing hands in 2022 and finally in 2024 hosted it’s first Australian V8-Supercars event. After this event (in 2025) Supercars will be hosting next year’s NZ event at a different circuit.

This event started on Friday the 11th of April and the weather was sunny all weekend.

In the pre-race sessions:

  • Andre Heimgartner was fastest in Practice 1
  • Ryan Wood was fastest in Practice 2
  • Matt Payne was fastest in Qualifying

In Race 8 Matt Payne started on pole position with Brodie Kostecki alongside him.

Matt Payne got the jump off the start line and led into turn 1 for the first of 37 laps.

Cooper Murray and Cameron Hill came into contact on lap 3. Cameron Hill was later deemed at fault and issues a 15 second time penalty.

After numerous attempts Ryan Wood finally passed Will Davison for 4th place.

Chaz Mostert was turned around by Thomas Randle at turn 1 dropping Mostert from 7th to 21st place. Thomas Randle received a 15 second time penalty for his actions.

Matt Payne then did the fastest lap of the race 1.28.075 seconds. He had a 1.3 second lead over Brodie Kostecki in second place.

Nick Percat was the first to pit on lap 9.

Macauley Jones was slowing approaching turn 2 and finally came to a stop. The safety car was deployed to remove his car because it was in an awkward spot of the turn. Excepting the front runners the whole field took the opportunity to take their pit-stops. The pit lane was chaotic.

The restart was on lap 16 and Matt Payne still had control followed by Cameron Waters and Anton de Pasquale in 3rd place. Kostecki had lost 2nd place when he chose to pit while the race was under safety car.

Ryan Wood passed Thomas Randle for 5th place his next target was Jack le Brocq in 4th place.

It was the middle of the race and Cameron Waters was applying maximum pressure on Matt Payne for the lead.

With 9 laps remaining James Courtney gave Cooper Murray a helping hand off the track. The safety car was not needed so the race continued.

The leading cars remained the same. In the last laps Ryan Wood was desperately attacking Cam Waters for second place. With Waters on the defence, Matt Payne was able to keep well ahead of the two.

Matt Payne’s faultless driving took him over the finish line 4.1 seconds ahead of Cameron Waters. Ryan Wood was right on Waters’ tail just 0.797 seconds behind in 3rd place.

Results for Race 8:

1st Matt Payne – Grove Racing

2nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing

3rd Ryan Wood – Walkinshaw Andretti United

In Race 9 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position alongside him was Chaz Mostert.

At the start of the race Chaz Mostert got the jump over Brodie Kostecki and led into turn 1 and 2 for the first of 37 laps.

Broc Feeney got away to an unbelievable start from the second row of the grid but soon lost the places he had gained. Will Brown gained 1 spot up to 4th.

Officials were busy investigating a false start for Matt Payne and further back in the pack there was contact between Cooper Murray and David Reynolds.

Brodie Kostecki stuck close to Chaz Mostert in the lead. On lap 18 Kostecki found a gap and used it to overtake Mostert.

In the middle of the race Chaz Mostert was driving aggressively to take back his lead from Brodie Kostecki. It was so aggressive that when Mostert passed Kostecki, Kostecki left the track onto the grass. He kept the chase on Mostert going.

Soon after the two leaders came into the pits. Kostecki made some sort of judgement error and hit the wall reasonably hard coming into pit lane. The right side of his car was pretty smashed in.

As the race was reaching its conclusion, Brodie Kostecki ran wide after a nudge from Chaz Mostert. Mostert stayed in the lead but the incident allowed Will Davison to slip past Kostecki.

With a clear track and clean air Mostert was able to build on his lead. In the end he crossed the finish line 6.476 seconds ahead of Will Davison in 2nd place.  Brodie Kostecki managed to keep 3rd place and came across the line 2.715 seconds later.

Results for Race 9:

1st Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United

2nd Will Davison – Shell V-Power Racing Team

3rd Brodie Kostecki – Shell V-Power Racing Team

In Race 10 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Anton de Pasquale alongside him.

As they took off Brodie Kostecki got the jump into turn 1 for the first of 61 laps. Anton de Pasquale ran wide and Kai Allen got turned around at turn 1 sending both down the order. Ryan Wood was trying to take the lead off Brodie Kostecki but with both drivers running wide, Cameron Hill was able to overtake them for the lead in one manoeuvre. Brodie Kostecki had now dropped down to 7th place.

Ryan Wood was later issued a time penalty for a driving infringement when trying to overtake Kostecki.

Matt Payne was in 2nd place and was in a prime spot to win the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy for the event. Thomas Randle passed Ryan Wood for 3rd place at turn 1 on lap 2.

On lap 5 the Ryan Wood recorded the fastest lap of the race, 128.5 seconds.

Kia Allen had smoke coming out of the right rear mud guard of car 26. He kept going until he had to come in for his pit stop.

Matt Payne took the race lead at turn 3 on lap 8  and was now followed by Thomas Randle while Cameron Hill dropped into 3rd place.

Further back Brodie Kostecki was keen to regain his position up the front and passed Anton de Pasquale for 6th place.

Macauley Jones was turned around by Cameron Waters on lap 11. Somehow, he managed to rescue himself without the safety car intervening.

The first car to pit was Will Brown in 10th place on lap 12. He returned to the track in 24th place.

In the middle of the race Matt Payne was leading by 1.4 seconds over Cameron Hill. Thomas Randle was back in third 1.9 seconds away from the race lead.

Towards the end of the race Matt Payne was looking strong to claim another victory for the weekend and therefore have enough points to claim the Jason Richards memorial trophy. He had enough of a lead so he wasn’t under immediate threat. He had a clear track and clean air. He only had to focus on maintain his speed and not making any errors of his own.

He crossed the finish line 3.194 seconds ahead of Cameron Hill. It was 5.094 seconds back to Chaz Mostert in 3rd place. After initially losing so much ground, Brodie Kostecki amazingly managed to climb back to 4th place ahead of Thomas Randle in 5th. Although the front runners were spread apart it was still a very exciting finish.

Results for Race 10:

1st Matt Payne – Grove Racing

2nd Cameron Hill – Matt Stone Racing

3rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United.

The next event is the Snowy River Caravans Tasmania Super 440 May 9 – 11, 2025.

Till I catch ya next time, keep revving!