David Reynolds vows that uncertainty over his future with Prodrive Racing Australia will not impact his growing V8 Supercars title prospects in the back half of the season.
The 30-year-old enters the Pirtek Enduro Cup fourth in the championship standings, well within striking distance of team-mates Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert.
Despite a career best run of form since switching to the FG X in March, Reynolds’ position at Prodrive beyond the end of the season remains under serious question.
The team has Dunlop Series leader Cameron Waters waiting in the wings to take over the drive, but
has yet to rule out loaning the youngster to a rival squad.
Prodrive remains deep in negotiations with sponsors to fund its four-car operation next year and is unlikely to confirm its intentions before locking in key backing.
Pepsi Max is expected to trim back to a single car, while extensions are yet to be struck with The Bottle-O or Super Black Racing, for which the team operates its fourth car.
Reynolds has been heavily linked to a switch to Brad Jones Racing in recent weeks, but both parties deny that a deal is done.
BJR is still waiting for confirmation of plans from its star driver Fabian Coulthard, for whom an expected switch to DJR Team Penske has been touted as the key to the driver market since July.
DJR Team Penske is yet to show its hand in the silly season, with no confirmation on whether it will take back its second Racing Entitlements Contract from Super Black in order to expand.
Existing contracts stipulate both Reynolds and Coulthard are technically unable to sign with rival teams until next month, ensuring the current holding pattern is likely to drag on into the most important phase of the season.
“It’ll take care of itself,” a pragmatic Reynolds told Speedcafe.com of his situation.
“I’m just going to focus on winning the next couple of races and continuing this championship fight.
“The next three races really set up your year and we’ve got to finish all of them and get really strong points to have a shot.
“I’m not too worried about it all (next year). I’ll be somewhere.”
Reynolds stresses that he would like to continue his four-year tenure at Prodrive amid the team’s rich vein of form with its FG X Falcons, admitting only that BJR ‘could be an option’.
“Contractually I can’t really do anything until October anyway,” he confirmed.
“I don’t like entertaining the ideas until then. My lawyer who writes the contract owns part of this team (Prodrive), so I kind of look stupid if I do something out of contract.”
A friend of Reynolds for more than a decade, lawyer Sven Burchartz took a minority stake in Prodrive Racing Australia in March.
The enthusiastic Porsche racer has been involved as a business advisor to the team since Rod Nash and Rusty French took over from Prodrive founder David Richards in late 2012.
With a host of drivers, including the likes of James Moffat, Tim Slade and Scott Pye, also out of contract, BJR will have no shortage of other options should Coulthard sign with DJRTP.
The BJR puzzle also includes the future of Jason Bright, who after scoring a podium finish last time out in Sydney, opined his desire to stay on for another season.
“It all hinges on Fabian really. I need to work out what he’s doing,” Brad Jones told Speedcafe.com of BJR’s driver plans.
“Honestly I’ll be looking at everyone that’s out of contract. Nothing has happened yet.
“I haven’t even discussed it with him (Bright), I’ve been so focussed on what we’re going to do for a driver for the #14 car.”
The V8 Supercars Championship continues with the Wilson Security Sandown 500 on September 11-13.