ANTON DE PASQUALE GIVES DAVID REYNOLDS A HAND

David Reynolds praised his rookie teammate – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

Reigning Bathurst champ David Reynolds has heaped praise on his rookie teammate Anton De Pasquale after a breakthrough top 10 result in Saturday’s Race 9, pace that didn’t go unnoticed by the experienced Reynolds, who adapted to his junior teammates set-up on Sunday.

Reynolds credited De Pasquale and his engineer Mirko De Rosa for his strong form on Sunday.

“Well, to be honest, Anton and Mirko, their little engineering group they have on car #99 is probably the reason why I am sitting here,” Reynolds said.

“In Practice we were 11th with our standard car, somehow I managed to qualify in P7 and had no pace yesterday. I noticed that he was very fast in yesterday’s race, he out qualified me and beat me so I stole his set-up.

“I was on the front-row and finished second with a chance to win. Without his contribution to the team at Erebus I wouldn’t be here.”

Anton De Pasquale during Race 10 – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

De Pasquale was unluckily caught out by the Safety Car as the crew were too late in making the call to pit, which forced last year’s Super2 Phillip Island winner to double stack behind Reynolds.

“The race was going to plan after a good start, I managed to gain a spot early on and was running comfortably in seventh before the Safety Car was called. Unfortunately, that caused a double-stack for us and I came out twelve spots down,” a philosophical De Pasquale said post-race.

“It was hard to fight back from there so it didn’t make the best afternoon but I think if it played our way we would have finished inside the top eight. Overall, I’m happy to be within the top ten most the weekend on genuine pace.”

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