The Team 18 driver came down ill on Monday night, rallying enough on Wednesday to decide to make the trek from his Melbourne base to Townsville.

On the second leg of his north-bound flight on Wednesday morning he went downhill again, with Team 18 withdrawing him from a sponsor event on the Wednesday night.

He was then absent from Thursday evening’s Track to Town and Palmer Street Party, with Porsche ace and Team 18 co-driver Harri Jones driving the #20 Camaro to and from the circuit.

“On Monday we had an engineering meeting, and some of the engineers were sick, and on Monday night I started to get aches and pains,” Reynolds told Speedcafe.

“Then on Tuesday I was completely wiped out. Fever, hot and cold sweats, fever, aches and pains, sore throat.

“On Wednesday I wasn’t too bad, so I flew up here. The first flight was okay, then on the next flight, I just went downhill.

“When I got to Townsville Airport I was just so sick. I don’t know whether the flight pushed me over the edge or what. I literally spent the whole day in bed, all day Thursday.

“I did a test, like just a supermarket test, and it’s not anything detectable from the four things they test for.”

Reynolds didn’t blame the illness for qualifying 17th for today’s race, although admitted it was hardly the best preparation.

“In the car you feel fine, the adrenaline gets you going,” he said. “But it’s not the best prep. And it’s really hard for me to talk on the radio, so it’s hard to describe what the car is doing.”

The new Townsville 500 format, with qualifying and racing on Friday, is also adding to the physical challenge for Reynolds.

“It’s shithouse, because normally on Friday it’s just the two practice sessions,” he said. “It’s unusual circumstances, which sucks. It brings the pressure on much earlier.

“I don’t know how I’ll go in the race. Doing one or two laps in a row is fairly easy, it doesn’t take it out of you. But the race might be hard.”