GENUINE pace on both tyre compounds in Tasmania has provided a welcome injection of confidence for David Reynolds heading into some of his more favoured circuits.
Reynolds qualified fifth for both Saturday races at Symmons Plains – one on the soft and one on the super soft.
Reynolds was just as competitive on race pace, converting the first of his opportunities into a second-place finish (the first solo podium of his Team 18 tenure). His hopes of immediately backing that up went awry with a mistake under braking that saw him clobber Brodie Kostecki.
Nevertheless, it was overall a substantial step in the right direction for the #20 Snowy River Camaro after a mixed start to the year.
Reynolds recorded a top five at the Sydney season-opener and matched teammate Anton De Pasquale for one-lap speed in Taupō, which was notable given how he struggled there 12 months earlier, before enduring a forgettable Ruapuna.
Darwin and Townsville are arguably the two tracks most to Reynolds’ liking prior to the Bathurst/Gold Coast/Sandown/Adelaide swing. He has twice been a race winner at Hidden Valley and just last year grabbed pole position on the streets of north Queensland.
So, what better time to have captured some momentum? Especially when the 40-year-old needs to get cracking to stay in the finals mix, sitting 226 points behind 10th placed Chaz Mostert.
His Tasmanian turn of speed coincided with the second of two aero tweaks granted to Chevrolet to shift the aero balance rearward – something Reynolds says didn’t provide more speed but made for a more user-friendly car that could be better executed in.
“When they talk about the numbers you kind of laugh at (how small the changes are) but obviously the proof is in the pudding and we were better on my side of the garage,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“It was definitely a positive weekend.”
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“I’m much more confident for the next few rounds than I would be starting the year, but I’ve been to these tracks before and driven shitboxes and been on the back row so it’s never a guarantee,” he noted.
“Every time you go racing you learn a lot and I think we had a bit of a step forward at Tassie. Hopefully we can keep running onto the end of the year with it.
“Honestly, magic crystal ball, I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, but I am definitely in myself more confident going into the next few rounds.”
Reynolds’ hunt for results comes against the never-ending backdrop of him facing pressure to retain his seat.
He is off-contract at year’s end, and Team 18 is known to have been in touch with Matt Payne’s camp about joining from either 2027 or 2028.
