2025 The Bend Enduro

The first round of the 2025 Supercars Enduro season has been completed with Penrite Racing scoring a podium in the inaugural two-driver race at The Bend in South Australia.With Garth

Tander joining Matthew Payne in the #19 Ford Mustang and Dale Wood accompanying Kai Allen in the #26 Ford Mustang, the two crews experienced contrasting results as Payne and Tander ended up 3rd, while Allen and Wood finished up with a gallant 15th.

Once again, strategy and impressive stints from both Payne and Tander played a pivotal role in helping their pair claim a podium place as they crossed the line almost 10 seconds ahead of the #1 entry of Will Brown and Scott Pye.

Throughout the whole weekend, Payne and Tander had shown plenty of promise as they finished all of Friday’s practice sessions within the top 10, notching up the 5th, 4th and 6th fastest times respectively.

While that same pace didn’t seem to be there early on Saturday with Tander 16th in Practice 4 and Payne 27th in Practice 5, the team chipped away at the Penrite Mustang's set-up and found form at the right time, qualifying for the Top 10 Shootout with the 7th fastest time before improving that to 6th during the Shootout.

When it came to the official 500km race, Tander didn’t have the strongest of starts as an attempt to make a pass on the opening lap resulted in the loss of a couple of places before falling to 10th by the end of lap two.

The race eventually settled following the opening few laps and Tander held his position within the top 10 before coming into the pits on lap 21. That decision to undercut some of the drivers ahead paid massive dividends as a quick stop saw him make up a handful of positions.

His second stint proved far more effective than his first and Tander found his way into third once the first round of pit stops had been completed, with a gap of eight seconds separating him and the next best driver.

Tander eventually completed his drive on lap 45 and gave the Mustang to Payne, who went on to enjoy a drama-free stint for the rest of the race as he essentially ran his own race and reached the chequered flag in third place.

For Allen and Wood, the pair had a rollercoaster event as a strong opening stint from Wood helped the duo finish significantly higher than where they began.

During Friday and Saturday’s practice sessions, Allen and Wood showed glimpses of pace with Wood going 3rd fastest in Practice 2 and Allen 9th in Practice 5, however the rising star was unable to replicate that effort and ultimately qualified 23rd.

With Wood on starting duties, the experienced campaigner produced a magnificent charge through the field in the opening few laps, picking up 4 spots by the end of lap one.

By the time Wood had reached lap 15, he had made up another two places to be sitting in 16 th and had made almost the most gains of any driver up until that point before eventually giving the car over to Allen 20 laps later.

The youngster had a decent start to his stint by making up some positions early, including on Jamie Whincup, before enduring a tight battle with Jobe Stewart for a top 10 place, where he eventually lost out and fell a couple of positions.

Using the four-stop strategy, Allen sat not far outside the top 10 for the majority of the race with a five- second penalty a bit of a blow to his charge – however the youngster enjoyed a strong finish to the race, powering to 15th overall and finishing with the fastest lap.

Following on from the round, Payne and Tander’s podium finish saw the former extend the buffer over Brown for second, while also closing in on championship leader Broc Feeney’s total pointscore to within 200 points.

The Supercars enduro season continues next month with the iconic Repco Bathurst 1000 to take place at Mount Panorama on 9-12 October.