Anton De Pasquale and Harri Jones’ DEWALT Chevrolet faces an overnight rebuild at Bathurst following a crash in Practice 2 at the Mount Panorama Circuit.

After De Pasquale placed second in the opening practice, which he shared with Jones, the #18 DEWALT Racing Camaro showed strong early pace. Jones then took the wheel in mixed conditions for the co-drivers-only Practice 2. After a couple of flying laps, Jones came unstuck after catching a puddle of standing water brought on by another car at the exit of The Chase, making contact with the concrete wall on the exit.

The DEWALT Chevrolet will have the rear clip replaced, with the crew working late into the night to return the car to as-new condition for Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions. De Pasquale praised the team’s early speed and expressed confidence that the car will be repaired and ready to go, while Jones acknowledged the disappointment of the setback but backed the crew’s ability to bounce back quickly.

In the TRADIE Energy Chevrolet, David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth enjoyed a strong start to the weekend, with Reynolds placing ninth in opening practice and Holdsworth fifth in the second session. Both drivers reported confidence in the balance and pace of the car, with only minor adjustments expected heading into Friday.

Team Principal Adrian Burgess said the #18 car sustained less damage than first appeared and credited the design of the Camaro for withstanding the heavy impact. He confirmed the repair will be completed overnight, with all major components intact and the car expected to return to the track on Friday.

Team 18 are back on track tomorrow for Practice 3 at 10:05am, Practice 4 at 1:05pm and Qualifying at 4:10pm AEDT. All the action can be viewed live on Channel 7, Fox Sports and Kayo.

RESULTS & QUOTES

Anton De Pasquale – driver #18 DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro

Practice 1: 2nd
Practice 2: 26th

“Day one at Bathurst, Thursday practice. Good to get on track. Had a pretty good first practice, ran through our plan and everything went pretty smooth. The car felt pretty speedy, which was good.

“Harri got some laps in halfway through that session too, which was always the plan and a good thing.

“Unfortunately, the co-driver session he had a small accident, minor complications, a bit of work for the guys, but I’m confident they’ll get everything back to where it was and we’ll go again tomorrow.”

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

“Thursday at Bathurst, I’ve had better days. Unfortunately, our weekend hasn’t started as we hoped, with the car in the fence in Practice 2.

“I’m disappointed for the whole team, who have a big night ahead of them, but I know they’ve got the ability. We’ll have another fast car tomorrow, reset, and go again.”

David Reynolds – driver #20 TRADIE Energy Racing Chevrolet Camaro

Practice 1: 9th
Practice 2: 5th

“Practice one and two today, rolled the car out of the truck and it was pretty good.

“The car was stable, had reasonable grip, just missed a bit of front-end grip here and there, but overall a really good session.

“We had enough pace in the car and now we can start tuning it to make it better and better.
There were a few red flags in that session, so we lost a bit of track time, but we got Lee in and he did a couple of laps, which was really beneficial because the next session was mostly wet for him.

“All in all, a great day on the #20 side. I think this is a car we can definitely have a fight with.”

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

“Not how you want your first day to go here at Bathurst. You want your first day to be dry and to build confidence throughout the day.

“Even though the track threw a lot of challenges at us, we still ended up with a reasonable day on the #20 car.

“We’re feeling pretty confident that we’re in the window and only need minor changes to make it quicker.

“It’s still early in the week, so we’re focused on Sunday and ticking everything off and we did that today. Now looking forward to Friday.”

Adrian Burgess – Team Principal, Team 18

“A very unfortunate accident for Harri. Coming out of The Chase, the car in front of us had run wide and deposited a massive pile of water on the track, which caught him out. I feel for him there.

“Up to that point, the car had been really quick in both sessions, so we were tracking along fine.

“The car will be okay, it’ll be a late night tonight. We’ll put a new rear clip in it and four corners on it. All the main parts of the chassis are fine, and we’ll stick a gearbox in it.

“It’s nowhere near as bad as it looked, luckily enough. It was still a 56G impact, so it wasn’t insignificant, but the design worked as intended. The components failed where they should, wishbones collapsed and absorbed the load, so the car stood up fairly well. It’ll just be a late night for the boys tonight.”