Team 18 has opened its Taupō Super440 campaign with both cars inside the top ten in final practice, as the Repco Supercars Championship hit the track for the opening day in New Zealand.

DEWALT Racing’s Anton De Pasquale showed strong early pace across the two short sessions, finishing second in Practice 1 before ending the day seventh overall, while Snowy River Racing’s David Reynolds improved across the afternoon to climb into ninth in Practice 2.

With limited 25-minute sessions and minimal turnaround between runs, both drivers worked through a range of setup changes to dial in their Chevrolet Camaros around the technical Taupō layout.

De Pasquale’s consistent showing across both sessions highlighted a solid baseline to build from heading into qualifying, while Reynolds made gains late in the day after battling an inconsistent balance early on.

In response to the extreme weather forecast associated with Cyclone Vaianu, Supercars has confirmed a revised schedule for the remainder of the weekend.

Saturday’s second race has been extended to 200km, replacing Sunday’s feature race, with all Saturday sessions brought forward by 30 minutes. Race 8 will now commence at 12:20pm NZST on the Super Soft tyre, followed by the 200km Race 9 at 3:30pm NZST on the Soft compound.

The Top Ten Shootout has been removed from the schedule, while Sunday’s running remains tentative, with qualifying scheduled for 8:00am and a shortened 120km race set to begin at 9:45am, subject to conditions.

Supercars will continue to monitor the situation alongside local authorities, with further updates to be provided as required.

RESULTS & QUOTES

Anton De Pasquale, driver #18 DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Practice 1: 2nd (1:27.4808)

Practice 2: 7th (1:26.7648)

“Practice here at Taupō was a bit different with two short sessions close together, which isn’t something we usually have.

“The car rolled out reasonably well and was pretty consistent across both sessions.

“We took a bit of a step backwards on the new tyre compared to some of the others, so we’ll have a look at that, but overall the rest of it felt okay.”

David Reynolds – driver #20 Snowy River Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Practice 1: 15th (1:27.9803)

Practice 2: 9th (1:26.8862)

“Practice one and two today, not too bad. Towards the end we went through a range of changes. The sessions are really tight at 25 minutes and not much break in between, so there’s not a lot of time to really sit down and think.

“Now we get the opportunity to do that and find out how to improve the car. I wasn’t entirely happy with the balance, it was sort of all over the place at the start, but Geoff made it a bit better towards the end and we ended up ninth.

“Still about six tenths off the pace, which is a lot, but I think that’s mainly down to a couple of corners. I believe there’s about half a second in that, so if I tidy those up, we’ll be far better off.

“I’m not a big fan of these short sessions. I’d rather longer sessions with more time to think and plan, but the problem is you don’t have the tyres for it.”

UPDATED SCHEDULE

2026 ITM Taupō Super440
(All Times NZST)

Friday 10 April
1:50pm – 2:15pm, Practice 1 (25 mins)
2:30pm – 2:55pm, Practice 2 (25 mins)

Saturday 11 April (Revised)
9:45am – 9:57am, Qualifying Part 1 – Race 8 (12 mins)
10:05am – 10:17am, Qualifying Part 2 – Race 8 (12 mins)
10:40am – 10:52am, Qualifying Part 1 – Race 9 (12 mins)
11:00am – 11:12am, Qualifying Part 2 – Race 9 (12 mins)
12:20pm – 1:20pm, Race 8 (37 laps / 120km) (Super Soft)
3:30pm – 5:00pm, Race 9 (60 laps / 200km) (Soft)

Sunday 12 April (Tentative)
8:00am – Qualifying
9:45am – Race 10 (120km) (Soft)