Erebus Penrite Racing’s David Reynolds is feeling upbeat about his chances heading into The Bend SuperSprint this weekend, after turning laps of the new circuit in April.

Reynolds clocked up the race lap record – a 1:47.6978 – in an AMG GT3 before Supercars’ maiden event.

“It gives me confidence knowing I can drive the track fast, but it’s a different car so I’m in the same boat as everyone else.

“I already know the track, so there’s a small advantage to that, but we have no prior setup information.”

With laps done in different machinery, Reynolds says everyone will still have to start from scratch.

“It throws up a big challenge, anytime we go to a new track and it’s not a standard street circuit, it takes a bit of work,” he said.

“This track has a range of different corners so it depends what setup we run with, obviously we can’t be fast over the entire track so we need to maximise the corners we’re strong in.

“I think the top teams will still be the top teams but they can be caught napping.”

Since the venue’s first race meeting, an inflow of Supercars drivers has had their own taste of the 4.9-kilometre circuit, including teammate Anton De Pasquale.

“Majority of the field have driven the track now and tried to gain an advantage,” De Pasquale said.

“We obviously do everything we can to try and get those extra laps and it means we waste no time learning the track Friday.”

The category makes a return to the hard tyre this weekend, which Reynolds says will suit the team’s Commodores after showing substantial results in the past.

“The last time we ran them was at Phillip Island and we went pretty well,” he said.

“Even at Adelaide we were strong on the hard tyre, Bathurst too. It could be a good thing.”

The first 45-minute practice at Tailem Bend kicks off Friday at 10:45am local time.