Penrite Racing fought hard in chilly conditions at The Bend SuperSprint today, claiming an 8th place for David Reynolds in the opening sprint race of the weekend.

The crew held its breath in knockout qualifying earlier in the day, when Reynolds was left to produce a flying lap after the chequered flag to get into the top 10, where he sped around the 4.95km secured 8th on the grid.

In the 24 lap sprint race, Reynolds jumped off the fourth row of the grind and into the battle pack at the front of the field, pitting on lap 14 and straight into a battle with Triple 8’s Broc Feeney and Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale. He passed De Pasquale for 7th with two laps to go before an error saw him finish up 8th.

Holdsworth qualified P18 and climbed three places forward in the opening laps before running long on strategy, seeing him rise to 2nd place on lap 19 before eventually pitting. He found himself 15th by the chequered flag.

Here’s what the drivers had to say after the first of three sprint races weekend in South Australia.

DRIVER COMMENTS

Car #26 Penrite Racing driver, David Reynolds, said: “It was a flat out race, it’s really hard to pass because the high grip surface here doesn’t create any tyre degradation, you just have to wait for people to make mistakes.

“We started 8th and finished 8th and if we ran the same tyre strategy as the rest of the category we would have been 7th so that’s where we sit on pace so far. We’re not far off so I’m hoping we can find a few things to speed up the car for tomorrow to break into the top 5.”

Car #10 Penrite Racing driver, Lee Holdsworth, said: ““For some reason my car still isn’t responding the way I’d like to changes which is severely hurting our Qualifying and ultimately our results. In the race we tried something different to most of the field and ran super long but the track surface is so smooth you don’t get enough tyre wear too capitalise.

“There’s rain forecast tomorrow so that might make things interesting. New day, new opportunities, we’ll give it our all.”

RESULTS

Race 21

Reynolds: P8

Holdsworth: P15

Qualifying

Reynolds: P8

Holdsworth: P18

Championship position

Reynolds: P7

Holdsworth: P13

Rain is predicted for Sunday’s two sprint races when cars are back on track tomorrow for Race 22 and 23 of the Repco Supercars Championship.