Erebus Motorsport didi a stellar job to recover with a fifth position today after being knocked off a podium in the final stages of today’s race at the Newcastle 500.
Qualifying set the grid; Reynolds putting together a stellar lap to claim a front row spot and just 0.01-seconds off pole position. Wood battled tough track conditions and traffic on his fastest lap to manage a best of 21st.
Starting from second spot, the Penrite Holden held its position and made it safely through a scary first lap.
It was the opposite for teammate Wood, who got stuck in a pile-up at turn 8 on the opening lap, causing the first Safety Car.
With majority of the field pitting under yellow flags, Reynolds sat effective 3rd on the restart with DW slotting back into his original position, 21.
Both Commodores pit for a second time under Safety Car on lap 34, before taking their third stop 20-odd laps later.
Reynolds drove his way to the leading spot by lap 69, but unfortunately made a mistake at the hairpin just two laps later, allowing car 17 to sneak through.
It wasn’t over yet, with the battle heating up between the #9 and #97; contact from van Gisbergen on lap 81 sending Reynolds into the fence. He kept momentum and raced on to eventually finish 5th.
Unfortunately for Wood, he saw pit lane another three times before crossing the finish line 18th.
The team now prepare for the final day of the 2017 Championship, with qualifying starting at 11:10am AEDT.
David Reynolds – #9 Erebus Penrite Racing
“We did a great job in qualifying to start on the front row, only missing pole by a very small margin. It was a very good effort overnight to tune up the car and make it faster. We got a good start during the race and I was running second before pitting under Safety Car and coming out third. I was just holding station, it’s pretty hard to pass here so I was just getting into a rhythm and not trying to do anything costly. We undercut van Gisbergen and McLaughlin in our last stop and that got us into the lead but a couple laps into my last stint I got a flat spot which hurt our race, I was still making good pace but it wasn’t as easy. Van Gisbergen made a bad move, tried to pass me in a single file corner and put us in the fence and out of contention. I’m very disappointed but tomorrow is another day, the boys will fix up the car and we’ll go again!”
Dale Wood – #99 Erebus GB Galvanizing Racing
“Unfortunate today to get stuck in some traffic during qualifying as I think we were a lot faster than we showed. I got a good start in the race but it all came undone pretty quickly, I made a small error on the first lap and we got stuck there for a bit. We managed to get going again but unfortunately we had to come through pit lane a few too many times. We’ve got plenty to go off for tomorrow and I’m looking forward to finishing the year on a high.”