Payne fastest in crash-hit Sunday Adelaide qualifying

MATT Stone Racing is facing a major repair effort ahead of the Adelaide 500 finale after a heavy crash for Cameron Hill in Sunday morning qualifying.

Hill clipped the inside fence at the high-speed Turn 8 sweeper nearing the halfway mark of the 15-minute session that set the field for the Top 10 Shootout.

The minor misjudgement had major consequences; the Matt Stone Racing Camaro slamming into the outside wall before skidding back for another lick of the inside.

Rookie Hill climbed from the car uninjured but is now in doubt for today’s 250km race.

“It certainly looks like it has sustained a fair bit of damage there,” said team owner Stone soon after the crash.

“We’ll wait until we get the car back and we’ll have a red-hot crack at seeing if we can get it tuned up for this afternoon.”

MSR confirmed to V8 Sleuth following the session that it expects the repair to be completed in time for the 2:45pm race start.

The stoppage was awkwardly timed for the remainder of the field – many of whom were on hotlaps at the time – and set up a frantic final few minutes.

Hill’s fellow rookie Matt Payne made the most of the equation, recording a stunning 1:19.09084s before parking up and watching his rivals fail to knock him off.

Payne ended up 0.2999s faster than the next best, Saturday winner Cam Waters, while David Reynolds made it first and third for Grove Racing.

Also set to feature in the Shootout are Broc Feeney, Thomas Randle, Chaz Mostert, Brodie Kostecki, Andre Heimgartner, Todd Hazelwood and James Golding.

A late effort from Feeney knocked Will Brown back to 11th in a blow for Erebus after a 3:30am repair effort to keep its teams’ championship charge on track.

Triple Eight’s Shane van Gisbergen will also have to charge from behind in the race, the Kiwi to line up just 15^th for his final Supercars start before heading to NASCAR.

The Top 10 Shootout will take place from 12:05pm local time.

RESULTS: Qualifying for Race 2, 2023 VAILO Adelaide 500