David Reynolds has claimed his second podium of the season, and his first at Winton, with a hard drive to third at Winton Motor Raceway today, as teammate Anton De Pasquale suffered a spin and finished in 19thplace.
David’s podium was thought to be setup at the start but wasn’t that straight forward.
Starting from third, the #9 Holden jumped to second before the first turn, but then shuffled back before regaining the spot before the end of the opening lap.
Behind the front pack Anton was battling hard, moving forward inside the top ten, after starting from 13th.
James Courtney was now in front, but a moment into turn three opened up an opportunity for David. He pounced, passing the #22 driver at the next corner to claim the lead on lap 2.
It wasn’t without controversy though; David being issued a 5-second penalty for light contact while passing the #22.
Ahead of the round of stops, David carved out a 1.2-second lead over Scott McLaughlin, while Anton moved up to 7th before pitting.
Stopping for tyres only, Anton pit on lap 16 and David three laps later on lap 19. Serving his time-penalty, David dropped in behind Whincup for P4, and Anton 8th.
It was bad luck for Anton on lap 22 though, spinning out the back of the top ten after copping a hit from Lee Holdsworth.
The battle heated up in front and on 15-lap fresher tyres, David was able to take effective third from the 7-time Champion on lap 28.
David held off Courtney for the final spot on the podium, while Anton managed to cling on to 19that the flag.
David Reynolds – Started: 3rd, Finished: 3rd
“Today was very good. It was very difficult with the intermittent weather and we missed out on the free pass in practice, but I think it helped in the end as we had warm tyres for the last qualifying and I got a really good lap to manage third.
“I had a massive battle at the start of the race, it was a lot of fun and I managed to pass Courtney. The track was pretty slippery, we clashed and got a 5-second penalty but rolled on. I came out of the pits and had to race Whincup, and we did that pretty easily. It was close between Courtney and I in the end, we played cat and mouse but managed to keep him off. It’s an awesome effort by the team and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow.”
Anton De Pasquale – Started: 13th, Finished: 19th
“We were having a really good in run qualifying but didn’t maximise it in the final moments when the track dried up. Unfortunately, we missed the last lap when everyone put their time down.
“We had a decent first stint in the race, we made up a few spots and were going well and then got spun mid-way. Unfortunately, from there we weren’t able to do much. We were safely inside the top ten before then and the car was good in the conditions, so we will see what we can do tomorrow hopefully in drier weather.”