Reynolds breaks record as big guns come unstuck in Practice 2

David Reynolds has headed Practice 2 for the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 as Jamie Whincup, Chaz Mostert, and Scott Pye all got trapped in the gravel.

Reynolds (#9 ZB Commodore) set a practice record 1:07.7779s to knock Penrite Racing team-mate Anton De Pasquale (#99 ZB Commodore) off top spot in the final minute of the half-hour session.

De Pasquale ended up second at 0.1132s off Reynolds’ pace and Scott McLaughlin (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang) was third at much the same margin further back.

Mostert finished the session fourth but with his #55 Supercheap Auto Mustang buried at Dandenong Road, metres away from Pye, who had suffered the same fate in the #2 Mobil 1 ZB Commodore.

Pye had set the early pace although lap times were initially all the way out in the 1:16s after rain earlier in the day.

As the times tumbled, it was not until the end of drivers’ fourth timed laps that Pye was properly unseated, when Mark Winterbottom (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore) went fastest with a 1:10.4093s.

Whincup (#888 Red Bull HRT ZB Commodore) took over the ascendancy next time around with a 1:09.4178s, before Andre Heimgartner (#7 Plus Fitness Altima) set a 1:09.3224s and Shane van Gisbergen (#97 Red Bull HRT ZB Commodore) then rolled out a 1:09.1359s.

Moments later, Whincup re-took the lead with a 1:08.5542s, 0.5817s faster than his team-mate, in the ninth minute.

He was fastest to the second sector on his next lap when he locked the left-front of Car #888 at Dandenong Road and ran into the gravel trap, drawing a red flag.

Several more joined him in the 1:08s bracket when the session restarted, with Lee Holdsworth (#5 The Bottle-O Mustang), Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang), Heimgartner, and then Reynolds all spending time at the top of the timing screen.

Van Gisbergen moved the benchmark to a 1:08.1728s on his second run, a time which stood up as the best until De Pasquale clocked a 1:07.8911s in the final five minutes.

That effort was just tenths away from Whincup’s year-old practice/qualifying lap record of 1:07.8389s until Reynolds jumped from sixth to first in the final minute.

Teams had reportedly been adjusting set-ups as the sun started to finally appear over Sandown International Motor Raceway, and McLaughlin eventually rose to third in the new Car #17.

Mostert ended up 0.2759s slower than Reynolds, with Holdsworth in fifth, van Gisbergen sixth, Winterbottom seventh, and Will Davison (#23 Milwaukee Mustang) eighth.

Whincup did get back out on-track but only found a couple more tenths of a second to put Car #888 into ninth, one position ahead of Heimgartner, while Pye was 22nd all told.

The session did end under green flag, given the lateness of Pye’s and Mostert’s respective offs at Dandenong Road.

Practice 3 is another half-hour hit-out for co-drivers only from 1520 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice 2