Townsville Supercars: Reynolds tops opening practice

The Erebus driver popped out on top with 60 seconds of the 40-minute session to go, displacing Nissan’s Todd Kelly from top spot with a 1m12.892s.

It was a case of the usual suspects at the top in the earning running, Scott McLaughlin going fastest early with a 1m13.377s, before being replaced by Reynolds (1m13.205s), Chaz Mostert (1m13.150s) and Shane van Gisbergen (1m13.094s) in quick succession around the 10-minute mark.

Shortly before the mid-point in the session Kelly became the first to break into the 1m12s, the Nissan driver banking a 1m12.988s to go top.

That time almost stuck until the end, Reynolds the only driver able to find enough time during a flurry of improvements in the closing minutes to jump Kelly.

“It’s been really good since we rolled it out,” said Reynolds, who was in the Top 5 effectively the whole way through before that late P1 lap.

“We only did a couple of runs then. I’m still not 100 per cent confident with it; my mid sector through the fast stuff is all over the place, and the way we run our cars now it tends to be a bit worse for those fast left and rights. But otherwise it’s been really good.”

That meant Kelly ended up second, something even he admitted was surprising.

“We’re just trying to work out what we did then, and how we’re going to do it again,” he said.

“I was quite surprised, the lap felt eight out of 10 and it was fastest for most of the session – and I think a few people put another set of tyres, or even greens on. We’ve got a little bit of stuff to look at, hopefully we can stay up that end.”

Van Gisbergen’s early time was good enough for P3, ahead of Triple Eight teammate Craig Lowndes, who survived a scary spin at Turn 6 midway through the session before improving with a 1m13.140s.

Tim Slade was fifth, the Brad Jones Racing finding some time in the closing minutes, while Mostert was shuffled back to sixth.

Garth Tander was seventh, although it could have been much better; the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver had two purple sectors over Reynolds before running wide at Turn 11.

Will Davison was eighth, points leader Fabian Coulthard was ninth, with James Courtney in 10th.

There were some big names outside of the Top 10, including title contenders Jamie Whincup (12th) and Scott McLaughlin (13th). Mark Winterbottom’s was just 15th quickest, with Prodrive Racing teammate Cam Waters down in 19th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	1'12.8920
2	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'12.9887	0.0967
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.0945	0.2025
4	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.1401	0.2481
5	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.1497	0.2577
6	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'13.1503	0.2583
7	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.1840	0.2920
8	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.2071	0.3151
9	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'13.2652	0.3732
10	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.3090	0.4170
11	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.3497	0.4577
12	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.3559	0.4639
13	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'13.3774	0.4854
14	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.4108	0.5188
15	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'13.5015	0.6095
16	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'13.5353	0.6433
17	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'13.5549	0.6629
18	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.5871	0.6951
19	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'13.7339	0.8419
20	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.7434	0.8514
21	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'13.7833	0.8913
22	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	1'13.9086	1.0166
23	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'14.1367	1.2447
24	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	1'14.2944	1.4024
25	62	Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	1'14.3537	1.4617
26	3	Aaren Russell	Holden Commodore VF	1'14.5016	1.6096