Team 18 has opened the Tasmania Super440 on the pace, with both Chevrolet Camaros featuring at the front of the timesheets during an intense opening day at Symmons Plains Raceway.

Snowy River Racing’s David Reynolds led the way in the opening practice session, while DEWALT Racing’s Anton De Pasquale completed a Team 18 double inside the top three.

Friday’s opening session was delayed by 10 minutes as officials cleaned debris left behind from the preceding support category race, before teams were thrown straight into a hectic afternoon with less than five minutes separating the two practice sessions.

Despite the interrupted running and rapid-fire format, both Team 18 Camaros rolled out of the truck with strong pace and remained competitive throughout the day as the field battled in incredibly tight conditions.

Reynolds traded fastest laps throughout Practice 1 before laying down a 51.1382s to finish fastest overall. The Snowy River Racing Chevrolet remained quick in Practice 2, ending the session fourth fastest.

De Pasquale was also consistently inside the leading group, backing up his third from Practice 1 with sixth in the second session as the team worked through setup changes with a recently revised aero package.

With only tenths separating the field across both sessions, Team 18 heads into Saturday’s qualifying confident of fighting near the front.

Saturday’s action features qualifying for Races 14 and 15 from 10:00am AEST, followed by two 50-lap, 120km sprint races with Race 14 at 1:00pm and Race 15 from 4:00pm. All the action can be viewed live on Fox Sports and Kayo.

RESULTS & QUOTES

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

Practice 1: P3 (51.3161)
Practice 2: P6 (51.0355)

“Practice here at Symmons Plains was pretty intense. They were short, sharp sessions with no real gap in between because of the delays and stuff, so it was pretty rapid fire.

“We just worked through the changes we wanted to do to try and learn some things with the slightly different aero package and see what we could find. Both cars are going pretty good, which is positive.

“It’s super tight out there, only a tenth either makes or breaks you, so we need to make a couple of good changes overnight and go again tomorrow.”

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

Practice 1: P1 (51.1382)
Practice 2: P4 (51.0286)

“Great first day. That’s probably the best day we’ve had all year in practice. Every lap I felt like we could’ve been up the front there. We rolled out of the truck with good pace and stayed on the pace, quickest in Practice 1 and then fourth in Practice 2.

It was a really good day. We tried a bunch of stuff, made the car a little bit better in some areas and a little bit worse in others. Hopefully we can keep it up there in qualifying tomorrow and the conditions don’t completely change so we’re not driving a different car. Hopefully it stays good.”