Erebus Motorsport’s David Reynolds has closed the gap to the Championship leader, finishing just outside of the podium at Symmons Plains today.
Reynolds qualified sixth and got away comfortably, squeezing in front of James Courtney before beginning his challenge for fourth; his teammate Anton De Pasquale behind him in P20.
The Erebus teammates held their positions as pit stops began to cycle through, Reynolds eventually gaining the lead before stopping on lap 20.
With the left-front tyre doing very little around the 2.4-kilometre circuit, the Penrite Holden stopped for three tyres only; De Pasquale following just two laps later.
Re-joining in effective P7 on a fresher set of rubber, Reynolds began to fight his way back up the order, passing Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin in the process.
Lapping quicker than Courtney in front, Reynolds closed the gap to the Walkinshaw Holden but was unable to make headway before the final corner, just missing out on third place.
De Pasquale soldiered on until the end of the 50-lapper but was kept honest by his more experienced competitors, crossing the finish line in 19th.
DAVID REYNOLDS: Started 6th, Finished 4th
“I’m starting to get good starts again and managed to get Courtney off the line. The first stint was OK, the cars in front seemed to drive away a bit faster than me. We pitted a lot later than other cars so that we would have fresher tyres in the final stint and we were able to come home pretty strong. We passed a few cars and had pretty good pace so overall it was a good day; qualifying sixth wasn’t our best but to finish fourth and maintain second in the Championship is a good result.”
ANTON DE PASQUALE: Started 20th, Finished 19th
“I had a fair few battles right from the start but then found my own space and ran my own race for majority of the laps. We didn’t have as much speed as we would have liked today, I didn’t lose positions but didn’t have enough to be able to really attack the guys in front. We need to work through a few things tonight and try get it working better for tomorrow. I think you race around where you qualify here, so we need to work on our one-lap speed first.”