Erebus Motorsport is looking forward to Sunday’s Bathurst 1000, after qualifying today around Mount Panorama.
David Reynolds was the quickest of the Erebus Holden’s, recording a 2:05.8381. The #9 driver showed strong early pace on a green circuit before securing his 14th placed start.
Sharing the #9 Commodore with Craig Baird, the pair spent practice working on set-up; the duo rounding out the sessions ninth fastest.
Shae Davies’ qualifying run was short-lived, with an excursion at the Chase leaving him stranded in the gravel trap.
Forced to sit out the remainder of the session under red flag rules, Davies was unable to get a flying lap in and will start the 1000-kilometre dash from 27th on the grid.
Despite missing the Shootout, both pairs enter Sunday’s race confident they’re heading in the right direction.
A final practice session will take place at 10:10am local time tomorrow ahead of Sunday’s great race.
David Reynolds, #9 Holden Commodore
“I’m a bit disappointed, it’s the first time I’ve missed the shootout; the only other time I crashed so I’m a bit deflated. Usually I come alive here and end up in the top ten, so we missed our marker today which sucks but it’s the first time working with a new engineer. He (Alistair McVean) has got to understand me, and understand the cars.
“It’s not so bad with 14th overall, we missed our last run and if I squeezed another couple tenths out of it we’d easily be in the ten. The good thing about missing the shootout is we get to concentrate on a race car tomorrow, and not get sucked into the one lap dash. We’re going to do some long runs tomorrow and see how it shapes up over a distance.”
Shae Davies, #4 Holden Commodore
“Practice today was really good, we put myself in first and ran through our program. We made some good gains and the car felt really good from where we started yesterday. I got a good time, and got my first 2:06 on the mountain, so I was really happy about that. That put us in about 12th and we were feeling pretty good for qualifying but unfortunately we had a drama early on; something wasn’t quite right and it forced me to lock up both wheels.
“I think our overall pace is good, we’ve made some really good gains, we’ve got some good pace. Regardless of starting position, I believe we’re in a good spot for Sunday.”