Erebus Motorsport breathed a collectively sigh of relief after David Reynolds was able to recover from a self described ‘dick’ move on the last lap to finish second in Race 12 at Barbagallo Raceway.
Reynolds had driven an impressive race from sixth on the grid to emerge as a contender for the win in the final third of the 83 lap contest.
However, with one corner remaining the Albury-born driver misjudged the entry and ran deep into the sand trap initially jeopardising a deserved podium.
Luckily he managed to haul his car back onto the track and had enough of a gap to Craig Lowndes back in third to hold onto his position.
His team were prepared to greet him on the pit wall but instead had to watch the drama unfold.
Team principal Barry Ryan admitted it was a heart in the mouth moment revealing that his driver jokingly said ‘he would have resigned if he buried the car in the sand’, once he returned to the garage.
“I think he relaxed for the first time in the race and thought ‘I’m home’, he only had one corner to go,” Ryan told Speedcafe.com.
“We were all out on the wall just ready to cheer, had all our hands out ready to clap and then it was ‘oh, she’s in the sand!’.
“Luckily he didn’t go too deep and he got through, and he had a big enough gap to Lowndes not to lose a place.
“He came back in and said he would have resigned if he’d buried it.
“I said he wouldn’t have had to resign, I’d have sacked you,” Ryan joked.
Reynolds was brutally honest with himself after the race following his final corner drama.
“I nearly f***** it up myself on the last lap, last corner, dick move Reynolds. Complete dick move,” said Reynolds.
“I just passed two backmarkers down the outside of the second last corner and I must have had some shit on my tyres and I wasn’t concentrating and locked the brakes.
“I went through the sand and I was like ‘oh no, I hope I don’t loose it completely’ and luckily I got back on and finished second.
“You can’t have a great race without blaming something I think.”
Reflecting on the race as a whole he felt everything was going perfectly but was surprised to see eventual winner Scott McLaughlin, who started 19th, emerge ahead of him once the pit stops had played out.
“I thought we were having the perfect race. I got a good start, we were second out of the Safety Car and Chaz’s (Mostert) tyres were fading and he pitted,” he added.
“We stayed probably about five laps longer than everyone. Second stint had much better tyre life, or better tyre quality than most people around me and passed everyone and found Scott was like ‘how did he get there?’.
“Then the third stint came and I was pushing really hard, I was catching him probably half a second a lap and then about five or six laps to go it sort of stabalised and he started to pull away.
“So that was the best race I’ve ever had here, so I’m really proud of everyone, after yesterday being 17th and having a terrible day.”
Reynolds’ championship tilt is continuing to gather momentum as he sits third after 12 races with a 168 point deficit to leader McLaughlin.
The championship heads to Winton for Round 6 from May 18-20.
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