Erebus Motorsport look ahead to the final day at the Auckland SuperSprint, after water wasn’t the only thing that rained on their parade today.

Dale Wood crossed the line to a time-certain finish in 20^th, David Reynolds lost three laps stuck in the gravel trap and finished 24^th.

With relentless rain pouring down on qualifying and the resurfaced back straight causing problems, race control red flagged the session just four minutes in. The session was eventually abandoned and combined practice times from yesterday determined Race 23’s grid.

Reynolds lined up 9^th on the wet line, however it didn’t hurt him; the #9 driver got a stellar start and jumped two spots to 7^th despite the slippery conditions.

Moving up to 5^th after 58 laps of racing, Reynolds had his eyes on a potential podium until Mostert made contact at the hairpin.

The #56 driver redressed, bottling up those behind and with Coulthard trying to make the most of the situation, he sent Reynolds off track and into the wall at turn ten.

The Penrite Commodore was eventually retrieved from the mud and made a quick stop in pit lane before returning to the field to claim crucial points. Reynolds crossed the finish line just nine laps later.

Dale Wood wasn’t so fortunate with his practice times, forced to start from 20^th on the grid.

He got off to a wonderful start and settled into a rhythm before pitting as early as lap 14 for his first compulsory stop.

Great work and quick reactions by our crew saw Wood’s Commodore make its second stop under Safety Car when James Courtney hit the tyre bundle.

Restarting the race P21, Wood was the next to make an error and tap the wall. He got going again and re-joined the train to eventually finish where he started.

The team look forward to a drier track and faster lap times tomorrow, with plenty of positives to take from today’s race.

A second qualifying will set the grid tomorrow, starting at 12:25pm local time.

David Reynolds – #9 Erebus Penrite Racing
“I had a magical start on the wet-side of the track, I absolutely killed it and was trucking along pretty good in the first stint maintaining station. I was pretty quick in the initial phases of the race and as it dried out my car wasn’t working as well with the setup we had. We were still running 5^th until Chaz tried to pass me; I blocked him and he slid into the side of me and we got going again, and Fabian came barrelling down the inside and I was trying to let him pass me, then he crashed into us and took us both out.

“I got out of the car to make sure he was OK and once I did, jumped back in to get going and get some points. I’m looking forward to having a cracking qualifying and I think we know what to do to make the car faster tomorrow, it’s just a shame for our crew as they have a bit of work to do tonight.”

Dale Wood – #99 Erebus GB Galvanizing Racing
“Qualifying was a pretty interesting situation and is not something we find ourselves in very often. I thought most of the track was fine in the wet, it was only the back straight that was too dangerous to drive on. It was a bit disappointing the way it worked out, and we lost out a little as I think we had better pace than what we showed at the end of yesterday.

“I got an OK start and had a good middle stint but then made an error and went in a bit hot into turn one; ran wide, locked up and grabbed the outside wall at turn three. I was lucky enough to be able to back it out and get going again. There wasn’t much we could do to recover from there but I think there’s a few positives in the car that we are finding today so it’s certainly not all bad.”