Saturday, August 20 – Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint

The home of horsepower became the home of hurdles for Penrite Racing to overcome at Sandown Raceway, today.

Starting the day on the back foot after David Reynolds was caught out by a late red flag in Qualifying, leaving Reynolds stranded at the back of the grid, the team was forced to fight back in this afternoons Race 24.

When today’s 36-lap sprint race got underway, Reynolds avoided the battle pack and pitted early for clean track as he attempted an undercut, setting a fastest lap of the race on fresh tyres after his stop as he fended off James Golding.

Lee Holdsworth meanwhile picked his way forward from P18 on the grid, in his 500th Supercars race start, to get himself into top 10 contention.

Holdsworth ran long and dived into the pits on Lap 25 from P2, where disaster struck with an engine stall causing him lengthy delays and sending him to the back of the field, squashing any hopes of a fairytale 500th race in the process.

As the front runners made their pit stops late in the race, Reynolds surged up the order, claiming 11 positions to bring car #26 home in P12, recovering from his Qualifying dramas earlier in the day.

DRIVER COMMENT

David Reynolds, said: “I had a few hurdles our there today. Qualifying sucked, I was within 100 metres or so of the finish line on my flying lap before the red flag came out.

“Once the race started I lost all my shift lights and my dash early, so I had to go totally old school during the race. Them at my pit stop the engine almost stalled, just like what happened to Lee. Thankfully my car had really good in race trim and when I got into clean air I made up heaps of spots with the undercut.

“It was a good strategy call from the team today. I’m keen to see what we can do with a better qualifying performance for the two races tomorrow.”

RESULTS

Race 24

Reynolds: P12

Holdsworth: P24

Qualifying

Holdsworth: P18

Reynolds: P24

Practice 3

Reynolds: P8

Holdsworth: P16

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Reynolds: P7

Holdsworth: P14

Teams Championship: P5

Penrite Racing is back on track tomorrow for Race 25 and Race 26 of the Repco Supercars Championship.