Penrite Racing misses podium in Sydney finale

Penrite Racing’s David Reynolds has narrowly missed out on a podium at Sydney Motorsport Park on Sunday, as a late move on the last lap saw him slip down to fourth, while Anton recorded a best result of 13^th after Saturday's valiant effort.

Race 11

Starting from P14 and P22 on the grid, both drivers got away well on the hard compound tyres. David picked off four cars on the start, while Anton was on a mission and moved up four places to P18 by the end of the opening lap.

David eventually settled for 13^th as drivers looked towards pit lane; David pitting at the end of lap nine for two right-hand-side tyres, with the crew carrying out the second fastest stop of the race. Anton followed him the next lap for a full set of hard rubber from an impressive 15^th position.

David moved up to 11^th by the checkered flag, the first of the finishers that opted for a hard-hard tyre strategy, with Anton up in 13^th after a sensational drive and the fastest lap of the race.

Race 12

David was quick to put his foot down from fifth on the grid, and as the lights went out moved down the inside of the second row and slotted into third, before taking second at turn two.

Anton, who started from P24 after qualifying on hard tyres, managed to gain one spot before looking at an undercut and pitting as early as lap six for four hard tyres.

David pit at the end of lap 11 for a full set of soft compounds and pushed to make it out of pit lane, though Jack Le Brocq squeezed past on warmer tyres for P2.

With the field cleansed, David pushed hard and was all over the back of Andre Heimgartner now in second, with five laps remaining. Heimgartner made a mistake under pressure and while David tried to make the most of it, Todd Hazelwood found a way past the #9 on the last lap to steal the last spot on the podium. Anton finished P19.

David Reynolds commented on his bittersweet result: “We had a relatively good day today; in the first race we were the first of the hard-hard tyre runners, so our car was good compared to everyone else around me. I was reasonably happy, got a good start and made a couple spots. We pitted quite early and looked after the tyres and the car and that put us in a good position at the end.

“We qualified with our best result for the last race and got a brilliant start and ended up second by lap 1. I thought I had a podium in the bag and would have finished second at worst but unfortunately, we got undercut by Le Brocq. The two cars in front drove away but I managed my tyres really well and they ended up coming back to me right at the end. I went for a move on Heimgartner but Hazelwood got a run on me and I didn’t have any tyres left to fight him. We were so close to a podium so it’s disappointing; instead of going for second I feel I should have defended a bit more to keep third.

“I am looking forward to heading to Darwin. It’s one of our better tracks and the last few years we have been on the podium most times so there is no reason we can’t go up there and have a strong showing.”

Anton De Pasquale said: “We knew we weren’t going to have the best day. For the first qualifying we had a go on recycled softs to see if they had anything left but they didn’t and were quite slow, then again in the second qualifying with the hard tyre.

“We worked our way into the teens though which was really good. In the first race we were the fastest car on the hard-hard strategy, and our race pace was really good. I had an awesome first lap and picked some cars off and had a good race to finish a fair way forward from where we started.

“In the last race we tried a few things and the car wasn’t quite as good and we didn’t have as good tyres but considering what tyres we had it was still a good result and it was great to move forward in every race this weekend.”

The team now head into a double-header in Darwin, with the first weekend scheduled for August 8-9.