Erebus Penrite Racing has experienced a soggy end to their endurance campaign after David Reynolds claimed pole position at the Gold Coast 600 today.

David gave Luke Youlden the best start for the 300-kilometre sprint, claiming the top spot in the Top Ten Shootout after finishing eighth in regular qualifying, making it three pole positions from four races.

Anton De Pasquale qualified for the second leg in the same position as he did the first, starting from 17^thon the grid.

With rain on the radar and teams unsure on when it would hit, Luke pulled a one second lead over James Moffat and Earl Bamber on the opening lap.

The three battled it out for position and with minimal movement through the whole field, it wasn’t until the rain started falling on lap 28 when things got shaken up; Anton pitting for wet rubber.

The rain continued to get heavier and it was a several car pile-up into turn 13 two laps later that caused the first Safety Car – Luke diving for pit lane this time.

Unfortunate for most teams, the time for wets was too early for the minimum drive time for co-drivers and Luke circulated in the #9 for another four laps before pitting again under yellows for a driver change.

With Anton leading behind the Safety Car and Luke in eighth place, standing water and rivers running across the track surface forced the race to be suspended on lap 37.

An attempt to restart the race didn’t last long, the race suspended again and ultimately cancelled.

With only 41 laps reached and less than half the race distance, it was a declared a non-race with no points awarded.

DAVID REYNOLDS:

“Qualifying was average, I didn’t get the best run but we scraped in the Shootout. We went back to yesterday’s set up, the car was much better and I did the best lap I could and that was surprisingly good enough for pole. I saw the time and thought it was OK and wasn’t sure what everyone else would do but no one was able to beat it. It’s awesome, we’ve had three pole positions out of four endurance races which is a big milestone for our team.”

LUKE YOULDEN:

“I finally got a good start, it was good to lead a few laps and settle into a rhythm. It was pretty slippery there as it got wetter, but we had good pace in those slippery conditions and I was a bit faster than those around me. We came back in good shape, but we should have come in a lap earlier, that’s where we lost a couple positions. We obviously toured behind the Safety Car, the boys made a late call once my laps were done to put Dave in and that was the end of the race.”

ANTON DE PASQUALE:

“Firstly, a massive shout out to the guys and girls to get the car back in shape after yesterday, they did a great job.  We qualified the same position as yesterday, which considering everything wasn’t too bad. We tried something different with strategy and I started the race. We made a few spots while cars pitted for wets, and we managed to come through 8^thafter the first stops. The rain got really bad and as the others pitted to put the main drivers in, we circulated around the front of the pack for 20mins before they called the race. It’s disappointed to be declared a non-race as our strategy could have played out really well.”

WILL BROWN:

“Obviously I did no laps today because of the rain but Anton did a good job. Overall the enduro season has been awesome, everyone works so well together, and it’s been an awesome atmosphere to be a part of. I loved every second of it.”