SUNDAY WRAP BEAUREPAIRES MELBOURNE SUPERSPRINT
The sun came out for the big day at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit for what would be a rolling start to the 6thrace of the season.
A huge crowd was on hand to witness Supercars final race for the weekend. Matt Payne got away brilliantly from the start and stood in P9 by the second lap.
Dave Reynolds started his race from the back of the grid but found pace as he came in to change his hard tyres for softs at the start of the race. He was sitting in P19 for lap 2.
Payne set blistering pace in his Mustang placing it in P7 by lap 8 of the race battling with the Tickford entry in front and Winterbottom following him.
Reynolds made his way up the field to P15 by lap 9.
With a few laps remaining Payne made a stellar move on the Walkinshaw entry of Mostert making his way to P6 with Reynolds edging his way closer to the top ten in the field as most of the field came in for their pit stops.
Payne along with drivers who ran longer stints on softs lost spots as the pitstops washed out however he did a stellar job to bring his Penrite Racing Ford Mustang home in P12.
David Reynolds made up for what was a disappointing weekend thus far, finishing in the top ten in P8.
David Reynolds said:
“So today was a much more positive day. We had one big race, and I am very excited how it all played out today. I started dead last and we had an amazing day finishing 8th – how that happened; we actually had a safety car start to the race, which would actually mean it would be harder to make positions, but we started on the hard tyre and pitted after lap 1 for the softs. The set-up of the car was amazing, and I put in some good fast lap times and managed to pass a couple of cars. Finished 8th – most of that through strategy, we only passed a handful of cars on the circuit – maybe 4 or 5 but the rest was done in pit lane. It was a really good pit stop and everything worked out how it should have. Starting the race from last and finishing in the top ten is an unbelievable day.”
Matthew Payne said:
“Overall, it was a pretty good race where got a good start and made a couple of moves which paid off. There was some nice clean racing up the front, but we may have been on the wrong strategy running on the softs at the start. I think it made it challenging towards the end to keep track position, but I ended up racing a few guys hard and clean, so I was pretty happy with myself.. Overall, it was a good day – shame to lose some spots, but it is what it is and I am feeling very positive.”
Round 3 will take place in Perth on the 28th to the 30th of April.
