DEWALT Racing’s Anton De Pasquale has qualified fourth for Saturday’s Top Ten Shootout at Mount Panorama, capping off a remarkable turnaround for the Team 18 crew after their late-night rebuild effort following Thursday’s crash.

De Pasquale and co-driver Harri Jones rebounded strongly on Friday, finishing eighth and 12th in practice before producing a blistering lap in qualifying to secure fourth place and a coveted spot in Saturday’s Top Ten Shootout.

The result comes less than 24 hours after the team worked through the night to rebuild the heavily damaged #18 Chevrolet, which struck the concrete wall at The Chase in Thursday’s co-driver session.

Jones completed valuable laps earlier in the day to make up for lost track time, building confidence ahead of Sunday’s 1000-kilometre classic, while De Pasquale praised the team’s effort and composure under pressure to deliver a fast, reliable car.

On the other side of the garage, David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth showed strong pace throughout Friday’s running in the #20 TRADIE Energy Racing Chevrolet Camaro, finishing fifth and seventh in practice before qualifying 15th for Sunday’s main event. Reynolds reported good speed down the bottom of the mountain but admitted the car felt unsettled across the top in Qualifying, while Holdsworth was encouraged by the car’s long-run balance heading into race trim.

Team 18 will return to the track on Saturday for Practice 5 at 10:05am, Practice 6 at 1:10pm and the Top Ten Shootout at 5:05pm AEDT, which will lock in the grid for Sunday’s Repco Bathurst 1000.

RESULTS & QUOTES

Anton De Pasquale – Driver, #18 DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro

Practice 3: 8th
Practice 4: 12th
Qualifying: 4th

“Wrapping up Friday qualifying day here at Mount Panorama, we’re into the Shootout, which was the main objective for today. That’s awesome, it’s the one you want to be in each year, and getting this place to myself tomorrow is amazing.

“Credit to the whole team, they stayed up most of the night rebuilding the car. It was heavily damaged, but they essentially built a new one and rolled it out spot on. It’s a real credit to them.

“I’m excited to give them something to cheer about tomorrow, they’ve definitely earned their sleep tonight.”

Harri Jones – Co-Driver, #18 DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro

“Good to be back in the seat today — it’s funny what a good night’s sleep can do.

“I was fortunate to get a couple of sessions in the car this morning to make up for lost time yesterday, and I’m feeling more confident with each lap.

“It’s really rewarding to see what the team achieved overnight to make such a fast car, and for Anton to qualify P4 and into the Top Ten Shootout is a great result. That’s really going to set us up for Sunday.

“There’s still a bit of work to do from my end, but I’m confident I’ve done enough laps around here to be up to speed before the race.”

David Reynolds – Driver, #20 TRADIE Energy Racing Chevrolet Camaro

Practice 3: 5th
Practice 4: 7th
Qualifying: 15th

“Qualifying just then, we had high hopes because our car has been pretty good on one-lap pace, but this is the session where you have to extract every last hundredth out of it.

“On my first set of tyres I had a huge moment at The Grate, which kind of destroyed my confidence a bit. I reckon I saved the team $600,000 and a night’s work there.

“After that we started trucking along and the pace was okay, hovering around the top ten. On the last run I knew it was my final chance, so I went for it but went in too tense over Skyline. It was almost like a repeat of last year, went over the kerb, it got really wild, and I nearly wrote it off again. So I saved the team another $600,000 and another late night!

“It was just really sketchy across the top for some reason, but we’re really fast down the bottom and through the last sector. We feel strong there, it’s just the top we need to sort out.

Lee Holdsworth – Co-Driver, #20 TRADIE Energy Racing Chevrolet Camaro

“Qualifying’s done and we didn’t quite have the pace we hoped for. I think we’ve got quite a strong race car though.

“The focus now is on Sunday, it’s such a long day, and with Dave and I having been to this race plenty of times before, we know what we’ve got to do.

“We’ll shift our focus to race pace now and hopefully the boys on our side get an early night.”