The little team that could has again provided the upset of Mount Panorama with David Reynolds backing up his Bathurst win of last year in the shootout at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
Reynolds and his rookie team-mate Anton de Pasquale, his first time driving a Supercar in the Great Race, produced a 1-3 finish in the ARMOR ALL Shootout.
Only the master and four-time Bathurst winner Jamie Whincup separated the Erebus Penrite Motorsport pair. De Pasquale, driving with another rookie in Will Brown, held provisional pole position right until the final two – Reynolds and Whincup went out.
As it stood Reynolds squeezed Whincup by only an infinitesimal nine thousandths of a second, one of the smallest margins in the history of the famous race.
It was De Pasquale who surprised. He sat atop the leader board as others fell around him. It was until the second last lap he was conquered, by his team-mate.
“My young team-mate did a pretty amazing time, so I couldn’t let him beat me; I had to go a few tenths up the road on him,” Reynolds said. “I threw everything I had at it, that’s all I had left.”
Reynolds win last year was considered one of the greatest upsets at Bathurst, now he has another to his name, revealing he woke up planning his assault.
“I was replaying how I was going to get the extra couple of tenths at 4 o’clock this morning,” said Reynolds who is again teaming up with Luke Youlden.
“It was amazing. Our cars are so fast. The team has done a brilliant job to roll out with this pace.
“All I want to do now is win again tomorrow.”
De Pasquale watched nervously in the garage as the final laps fell, not believing he was still there in the end.
“It was stressful,” he said. “All of a sudden we started passing guys in the garage and it started getting a bit serious. We will have a big think about it tonight, tomorrow is going to a big day.”
Shane van Gisbergen joins De Pasquale on the second row, with a 2:04.5385s, admitting he “probably didn’t get it quite right”.
Scott McLaughlin could not repeat his 2017 heroics and will start fifth, alongside fellow Ford driver Cameron Waters in the Falcon’s Bathurst farewell.
First-time Shootout runner Nick Percat and James Courtney took seventh and eighth. Craig Lowndes, in his 17th and final Bathurst Shootout as a full-time Supercars driver, was ninth and starts alongside another veteran in Garth Tander.
Tomorrow’s edition of the Great Race will begin at 11:10am AEST, with the winner of the 161-lap, 1000km journey will be crowned the new King of the Mountain.
Watch The SuperCheap Bathurst 1000 Tomorrow Morning
This year’s event marks 50 years since Holden’s first win at Mount Panorama, while fans will also can “Honour the Falcon” with Ford Australia announcing the Mustang will return to the grid from 2019, while there will be three new inductees to Supercars Legend’s Lane.
Fox Sports 506 has a dedicated, 24/7 Bathurst channel for race week.
Supercars and Foxtel will broadcast the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 in 4K, making the sport the first in Australia to be televised in the highest possible resolution available in the country.
4K action starts Sunday, October 7 with a replay of the Top Ten Shootout, followed immediately with the 161-lap Bathurst 1000, LIVE and in 4K on FOXTEL’s new channel 444.
Bathurst 1000 LIVE in HD and for the first time ad-break free during racing on FOX SPORTS 506.
TEN and WIN will deliver over 21 hours of LIVE coverage on TEN and TEN HD from Friday to Sunday.
