David Reynolds has declared his wild Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 victory celebration a great thing – even if it did not turn out quite how he planned.
Reynolds proceeded to spray a fire extinguisher when he walked onto the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit podium, although he was left disappointed when he discovered it contained foam rather than some gaseous substance.
Nevertheless, the bizarre spectacle still amused those watching on, which was the main thing for Supercars’ regular court jester.
“I just like to do something different,” he explained.
“Everyone stands up there, gets their trophy, sprays their champagne… It’s kind of boring.
“I always like to do something fun when you win, and I was talking to Jess Yates [who conducted the post-race television interviews] and she said, ‘What are you going to do?’
“I looked around and I saw a fire extinguisher; I’m like, ‘That’s my ticket.’
“I got up there and I thought it was going to go completely different in my head, though.
“I thought it was going to be like a CO2 canister and I was going to spray a big cloud of mist around everyone and walk out; it’d be like a showmanship thing.
“But, I pressed it and it was water one, and I was like, ‘That’s so disappointing.’
“Anyway, it was funny, and that’s what everyone’s been talking about today, which is great.”
The Gold Coast was also the scene of Reynolds’ first Supercars Championship race win, back in 2013.
Then, he tossed a pot plant off the podium, something he repeated with even greater vigour following his latest triumph.
The 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner described his win 24 hours ago as his hardest-fought, having been engaged in an intense stoush with Kostecki, one of the toughest racers in the field, for most of his final, 26-lap stint.
Reynolds emerged from his latter pit stop with the lead, had to cede it on Lap 72 when Kostecki wrested track position for the run to the Beach Chicane, then snatched it back when the Erebus driver ran wide at Turn 11, two laps later.
“This is probably one of the highest ones,” he said of career highlights.
“Like, that’s the hardest-fought win I’ve had.
“Ideally, I’d like to win by a bit more comfortable margin, but my car wasn’t very good in the last stint, so I had to hold on for dear life.”
The victory was the first for Grove Racing since the Grove family took over full ownership of the team, with Reynolds’ rookie team-mate Matt Payne finishing fourth in Race 26.
He had also qualified on the front row for Race 25, as did Reynolds for Race 26, with the latter declaring it the team’s best weekend since he joined what was Kelly Grove Racing in 2021.
