Team 18 showed promising form across the opening two races of the ITM Taupō Super400, with Anton De Pasquale narrowly missing out on a maiden podium for DEWALT Racing in Race 8, before a pit stop mishap cost him dearly in Race 9.

Teammate David Reynolds also made solid progress in both races in the TRADIE Energy Camaro, fighting his way forward from the back of the grid in each outing.

Starting eighth for Saturday’s opener, De Pasquale was caught up in an early incident involving Randle and Mostert, which saw contact to his front-left wheel, but he emerged unscathed and continued on in seventh.

When the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 10, Team 18 took advantage of the situation with clinical pit stop strategy. De Pasquale pitted the following lap and vaulted into third position, holding strong inside the top three for the majority of the run to the chequered flag. Despite late pressure from behind, he crossed the line fourth, earning his best finish yet with Team 18.

Reynolds also made a strong start, moving up three positions on the opening lap from 18th. After pitting under safety car, Reynolds continued to move forwards. After serving time behind cars that would later be penalised, Reynolds was classified 11th at the flag, a commendable result after a hard-fought race.

In Race 9, De Pasquale started ninth and again looked racy in the opening phase, pulling off a slick double pass on Randle and Brown to charge into the top six. However, a cross-threaded wheel nut during his pit stop caused a lengthy delay, undoing the early progress and dropping him down the order. He went on to finish 20th after a late incident while battling with Golding.

Reynolds again battled through from the back, enduring early contact with Murray and later with Allen, but held firm to finish 17th in a gritty drive.

While the results from Race 9 were not what the team had hoped for, the strong pace and execution across Saturday provided a solid foundation to build on heading into Sunday’s final race.

Team 18 are back on track on Sunday for Qualifying at 10:35am NZST before the Top 10 Shootout at 12:50pm and Race 10 at 3:05pm. All the action can be viewed live on Fox Sports and Kayo.

RESULTS & QUOTES

Anton De Pasquale, #18 DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Qualifying (Race 8): 8th

Qualifying (Race 9): 9th

Race 8: 4th

Race 9: 20th

“A couple races here at Taupō and we had some really good pace, so there’s pace for the podium in both races, which is really cool, really positive for everyone.

“I just got caught out in the first one, which pushed us back to fourth. So a bit shattered not to be on the podium there. I think we definitely could’ve been.

“Last race, different tyre and a very different style of race. It was looking really good, fighting into the top five area and then just had a bit of a mishap in the pits, and then she’s all over.

“Back on the super soft for the first time this year which was very different to our new soft, with very different race pace. The car seemed to be quick enough in both which is really positive. Hopefully we have our head around the differences and can use that moving forward.”

David Reynolds, #20 TRADIE Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Qualifying (Race 8): 18th

Qualifying (Race 9): 20th

Race 8: 11th

Race 9: 17th

“We had high hopes going into qualifying and then we ended up 18th and 20th, so didn’t play out how we thought it was going to play out. It just makes your day very difficult.

“I got a really good start from 18th to 15th. We were quite strong in the first stint in both races. Then in the last after the safety car I was just holding on and we ended up finishing 13th on the road, but then there was a bunch of penalties, so ended up 11th, which is not bad considering where we started.

“Then the super soft tyre race. The first stint was the best. I thought I probably should have finished maybe 13th or 14th, but ended up 17th. In the last stint the car just got away from me and that’s all she wrote.”

“We had the opposite problem to Anton’s car throughout the day, so we’ll dive into the data overnight and try to fix it for Sunday. Hopefully we can turn it around and finish strong.”