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SATURDAY WRAP THRIFTY NEWCASTLE 500

The day kicked off with Qualifying where Reynolds secured his place in the shootout in P5 and Payne in P22.

The 95-lap race began with David Reynolds in P5 on the grid. He battled for 5th place with Slade in the #40 with Heimgartner following close behind.

In his debut race as a full-time driver, Payne began from P22 and made his way to P20 by lap 3 ahead of Cameron Hill and Jones.

By lap 8, the rookie had made up places to sit P18 ahead of Fullwood.

Payne came in for a pit stop on lap 19 and Reynolds remained in P6. Payne came out P24 in the field with most yet to stop.

Reynolds came in for his stop on lap 28 coming out ahead of Mostert in P11.

Reynolds was back up in P5 by lap 34 with Payne making his way up to an impressive 12th place in the field.

Payne and Golding battled for position on lap 42 where Golding eventually made the move on Payne to take P12.

Reynolds and Mostert battled for position 5 on lap 55.

Payne came in for his stop on lap 56 coming out P21 in the field.

Still battling for position, Reynolds and Mostert fought for P4 on lap 57 with Dave completing his stop a few laps later.

By lap 75 Reynolds was in P12 and Payne P15.

The Penrite racing Ford Mustangs came home in P12 for Reynolds and P14 for Payne in what was a strong start to the season for the Braeside-based squad.

Matthew Payne, #19 said:

“Just finished race day here at Newcastle – first race of the season. It was overall pretty good for car #19. We didn’t really make any mistakes the whole race and we had a good strategy…managed to pass a couple of cars and come home 14th so overall a really good day for car #19 and definitely a strong start to our season making up 7 places. It was a hard and long race, but I tried my best.”

Dave Reynolds, #26 said:

“Today went really well, top 5 in both the quali and shootout. It was a very good start to the year for our car speed. It shows all the hard work the engineers and mechanics have put in to build a good car. In the race, I got an average start; dropped to P6 I believe, but we went along okay just trying to manage the tyres and see what the car does over distance.”

Tomorrow will see another Qualifying, shootout and Race 1 to conclude the first Round of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship season.