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The day De Pasquale took the next step

02 Apr 2020
‘It was like watching my son get a podium’
2 mins by James Pavey
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De Pasquale claims first Supercars podium

Inside Line – A Season with Erebus Motorsport returns tonight for its second episode and with it comes an enormous moment in the career of Anton De Pasquale.

The episode follows the Penrite-backed team’s travels to the third and fourth rounds of the 2019 championship at Symmons Plains and Phillip Island.

Having started the year slowly, De Pasquale showed promising progress at Tasmania – but it was at the following event that he showed his true potential, securing his maiden main game podium.

Phillip Island had been kind to the former European open-wheel prodigy in the past, taking his first Dunlop Super2 race win there in 2017 and his maiden Supercars top 10 finish in ’18.

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De Pasquale qualified an excellent fourth for the Sunday start, improved to third by the first corner and would still hold that position when the chequered flag dropped.

The fact that the only two cars ahead were the two Shell V-Power Racing Mustangs that dominated the first half of 2019 added weight to the performance.

“Anton’s first podium with the team, it was a pretty proud moment,” Erebus CEO Barry Ryan reflects in the episode.

On the impact De Pasquale has had on the team since joining ahead of 2018, Ryan added: “We’re now a genuine two-car team, where we can rely on Anton and his engineer [Mirko De Rosa] for their feedback to help the cause.”

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The team had by contrast operated with a clear lead car/driver in seasons 2015-17.

David Reynolds, who joined as the team’s spearhead driver in ‘16, described how he’s seen De Pasquale grow in their time together.

“So Anton came into our team at the end of 2017,” Reynolds said this week.

“We knew he had a lot of talent and a lot of skill, so when the opportunity came, we put him in full-time and he’s been nothing but great for us.

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“Even though he is quite inexperienced in these cars, he has a very good driving style, a very clean-cut method and understanding of how to get speed out of the car and it is slightly different to me, which can be good, can be bad.

“To see him get his first podium was like watching my son get a podium.

“It was a good feeling because I’d like to think I’ve been a small part of his career.”

The second episode of the docuseries will air from 7pm AEDT tonight on Fox Sports and Kayo.

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