Penrite Racing’s David Reynolds and Luke Youlden have climbed from 22nd to fifth at the flag, while youngsters Anton De Pasquale and Will Brown suffered issues that forced them out of the race.
The team elected to place the main drivers in for the start to put them in the best position when things finally kicked off.
At the start, David got away superbly and made up several spots, while Anton maintained position inside the top ten.
The field settled pretty quickly though, with minimal action until lap 100.
Brown and Youlden were making moves forward after a few misfortunes in the early stages of the race, working their way up to 9th and 16th respectively before main drivers took control for a triple stint home.
A Safety Car on lap 112 saw things really heat up, as the race went into the business end and fuel became a talking topic.
Dave pit for tyres and fuel and returned in 10th, though Anton was stuck behind the train and forced to stay out in order to not go a lap down (P18).
Both Penrite Holden’s were powering past their opponents until disaster struck on lap 125.
Anton smacked the wall at the top of the mountain with a stuck throttle pedal, unfortunately ending the young pair’s day after a brilliant effort all weekend.
The collision caused another Safety Car and opting to pit under yellow for a splash of fuel, it was 17 laps later on lap 141 where the #9 Commodore entered the lane for the final time.
With David now the first who could make it to the flag without fuel concerns, he advanced to sixth and was in a good spot for the sprint home.
David hunted down Rick Kelly for 5th and made the move stick with just eight laps remaining, though a few more laps under Safety Car meant the teams that hedged their bets with fuel would most likely make it home.
Both David and Luke delivered an outstanding drive to claim a remarkable result and valuable championship points at the end of a tricky day.
David Reynolds – Started: 22nd, Finished: 5th
“We started 22nd which was a terrible starting position and we battled all day. There wasn’t a lot of pace in the car, but toward the end of the day the car started getting better and better and we raced a lot of people, had some decent battles with people and ended up 5th,which wasn’t a bad result.
“I had to be pretty brave passing people sometimes but at the end of the day we were trying to win the race and it sounds like if Fabian didn’t hold everyone up, we had enough fuel buffer to jump McLaughlin.
“We were genuinely on for a podium finish which would have been an amazing result considering where we started and the week we’ve had. The mountain hasn’t been kind to us this weekend.”
Luke Youlden – Started: 22nd, Finished: 5th
“I’m pretty pumped about the result. The boys made some pretty big strategy calls from the start and if it wasn’t for some safety cars, it probably cost us a podium chance to be honest. We were right on fuel and everyone else had to either pit or save. We committed early and whilst it’s a massive effort to have finished 5th from 22nd, once you have won it anything else is a bit disappointing, but I’m happy for the team and all the hard work they did to get us there. “
Anton De Pasquale – Started: 7th, Finished: DNF
“We started off the weekend pretty well, we kept it clean the whole weekend which was one of the aims and we had a fast car for most of it. We were with the top bunch in terms of speed today but then we had a few little issues that piled up.
“We lost a bit of time in pit lane during the early stages, so everything started turning against us and though we were still doing decent times, it wasn’t going to be the result we were chasing.
“It was just a tough day and in the end the throttle got stuck and ended our race. The crew has a big week and we have a lot of work to do, though we had car pace which is positive heading into the next round.”
Will Brown –Started: 7th, Finished: DNF
“We’ve shown some great pace early in the week and between the both of us we’d been top five all weekend. It’s like everything that could go wrong did go wrong today though. I had a bit of a muck up in my first stint and then from there we had issues for the rest of the run.
“We were still in a good position despite everything and could have battled on and got a good result but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be today, so it’s pretty disappointing.
“The team had obviously done so well previously so it’s a bit hard to take but we’ll come back harder at the Gold Coast and Sandown.”