Erebus shrugs off Reynolds chicane shortcut

Barry Ryan puts David Reynolds shortcut down to "nature of this track”
Reynolds defeated Brodie Kostecki after cutting chicane on last lap
Penrite Racing driver won first race since Newcastle 2018

Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan has shrugged off David Reynolds’ final-lap shortcut in the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 as being down to the "the nature of this track”.

Reynolds staved off a challenge from Brodie Kostecki to win Race 26 on Sunday, with the Penrite Ford straight-lining the front chicane on the final lap.

The #26 Penrite Ford driver had not been issued a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits.

Reynolds hung on to win by just 0.1889s after 85 enthralling laps, with Kostecki having ceded the lead to Reynolds earlier in the race during their battle.

Erebus did not request a review of the incident, with Reynolds claiming his first victory since Newcastle 2018. It came after Reynolds cut the front chicane on lap 71, when Kostecki was also directly behind.

“It’s a difficult one,” Ryan said in the post-race press conference.

“This track lends itself to having a bit of a lend of the rules if you want to.

“Obviously, Dave knew there was one lap to go and Brodie was going to pass him at the hairpin, so he just drove straight.

“It’s just what you can do with the rules and he had no [exceeding track limits] warning for the whole race, so he could get away with it.

“But, Brodie could have used the same trick and didn’t, but that’s just the nature of this track.”

Reynolds attributed the chicane cuts to airflow disturbance, with Kostecki directly behind: “They’ve got a bit more straight-line speed, so they can tow up behind me and, in the braking zone, take our aero off us.

“As soon as I turned in, I just lost the rear, so I did my best job to make the corner and, unfortunately, that’s just this track.

“I didn’t have any bad sportsmanship flags or anything to worry about so I could have cut the kerbs and used that to my advantage.

“So I did, thankfully, but that’s all set up during those first 80 laps where you’re trying to manage your car and manage the black flag and everything like that.

“I feel a little bit funny about it because I’d be annoyed on Brodie’s side that it happened like that but it doesn’t bother me.”

Penrite Racing did request an investigation into Kostecki’s contact at the final corner, although Ryan said a precedent had been set in Kostecki’s Perth battle with Shane van Gisbergen: “It was exactly the same situation as Perth.

“The rules are pretty clear that, the corner before, you can’t rub someone up and then pass them on the next corner.

“But, if you rub them up for the lap before and wear their rear tyres out, you can have a crack at them three corners later.

“So, that was the precedent set in Perth and that’s what happened today.”

Kostecki will carry a 131-point championship lead over van Gisbergen to the VAILO Adelaide 500 on November 23-26.