P5 recovery effort 'silver lining' for Reynolds

David Reynolds/Garth Tander recovered to fifth after early drive-through penalty
Reynolds pinged after passing Broc Feeney after Safety Car control line
Sister Matt Payne/Kevin Estre car comes home 11th after early incident

Recovering to fifth in Sunday’s Repco Bathurst 1000 proved a “silver lining” for David Reynolds following a costly drive-through penalty early in the race.

Reynolds and Garth Tander brought the #26 Penrite Mustang home in fifth, having run in the top five early in the day.

The #26 suffered a big setback when it was dealt a drive-through penalty after Reynolds overtook Broc Feeney’s #88 Red Bull Ampol Mustang during the race’s first Safety Car on lap 28.

Feeney was exiting pit lane and made it to the Safety Car line just ahead of Reynolds, who went past the Triple Eight Chevrolet.

Reynolds eventually redressed, but after the penalty was handed to the #26, which dropped the Ford from third to the end of the train.

Tander, the reigning Bathurst winner at the time, was far from happy, saying on the broadcast: “It’s frustrating, disappointing but ultimately there is a long way to go in this race and we’ll get back in the game.”

The five-time Bathurst winner’s words rang true, with Reynolds/Tander working through the field on pace and strategy to finish fifth — although Reynolds ultimately fell short of his goal to be first Ford home.

Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang) and Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) finished ahead, with Reynolds just 6.2s behind the latter.

“He comes out of pit lane, and he’s slower than me, then I’m ramping my speed up to try and beat him to the Safety Car line,” Reynolds recounted on the Schick Cool Down Lap podcast.

“Then I’m looking at him, I wasn’t really looking at the line, it would’ve been close. Normally they just tell you to redress it and we go racing.

“Silver lining [to finish fifth] but I think we could’ve been third or fourth, we were aiming to be best Ford. It’s a bit of a loss for us."

It was a day of what-ifs for Penrite Racing, with Matt Payne/Kevin Estre recovering to 11th after the French driver speared off at Hell Corner and dropped a lap in the #19 Ford.

Race engineer Alistair McVean added: “Suddenly it was given a pit lane penalty, which I’ve never seen before... both cars had a setback during the race, we never gave up.”

Team Principal David Cauchi said: "Our speed was reasonable with both cars, but the penalty for #26 was disappointing... we’ll work internally to make sure that can never happen again.

"A small mistake for #19 early was tough but we got them back on the lead lap and to finish 11th was a great effort."

Payne and Reynolds are 16th and 19th in the drivers' standings with the Gold Coast and Adelaide rounds remaining.