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Barry Ryan says Penrite Racing isn’t dwelling on a clash between David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale at the Supercars season-opener.
The collision during the second Superloop Adelaide 500 race left De Pasquale with race-ending damage to his Holden ZB Commodore following secondary contact.
Reynolds, meanwhile, had to fight back through the field to ninth place after copping a pit lane drive-through penalty.
The net result was Erebus Motorsport ending the weekend seventh in the teams’ championship with Reynolds sixth and De Pasquale 20th in the drivers’ championship.
Asked about the post-weekend debrief, Ryan said the team didn’t need to talk about what was effectively a racing incident in their eyes.
“We didn’t even discuss it,” the Erebus CEO told Speedcafe.com.
“We’re more worried about how we can keep the cars fast and improve them more. It wasn’t even a topic in the debrief because it’s something we all forgot about pretty quick.
“It’s not a concern at all. They happened to be at the same bit of track at the same time and Anton was trying to turn around the corner.
“Dave was trying to pull off a move under brakes and doing it as safely as he could. They happened to hit by about 10mm.
“Dave obviously got the blame but there was nothing he did recklessly or intentionally. It wasn’t worth talking about it.
“You can’t say ‘How do we avoid it next time?’ because he wouldn’t do anything differently.”
Shortly after the race when Speedcafe.com spoke with Reynolds, he noted Ryan had left the circuit by the time the race finished, adding to his anguish.
However, Ryan confirmed that leaving the circuit early on was always his intention and wasn’t due to the crash.
Ryan said he understood Reynolds’ disappointment but was quick to reaffirm his belief in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 winner.
“He’s alright. He’s just so passionate about the team and what we’ve built and what we’re doing,” added the Erebus boss.
“He just hates anything like that to go wrong. He never does anything like that intentionally or recklessly. He’s probably one of the most reliable drivers in pit lane.
“He just tears himself over stuff like that because he knew we’d lost some team points because Anton doesn’t get a result.
“Anton personally doesn’t get to tick off a good Adelaide weekend as he should have. He’s fine. No one has got the shits with him, we just press on.”
The team now finds itself having to claw back points in the teams’ and drivers’ title fight. However, Ryan remains optimistic about the remainder of the year.
“It’s a bit of a shame trying to drag back championship points,” said Ryan.
“Both of them are really positive with the way we’re heading with the car.
“Dave’s car was a lot better on Sunday in the race but just didn’t get to show it because of the penalty and getting stuck in traffic.
“If he had qualified on the front row on Sunday as he did on Saturday, he could have had a podium or win there.
“We should have had two really successful days with Dave and Anton. There were some dramas in pit lane for Anton on Saturday and Sunday should have been a lot better.
“Anton was really fired up to do a really good job and come out of Adelaide in the top 10, unfortunately, he didn’t have that opportunity.”
The next event is the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400 on March 12-15, at Albert Park.
