Team 18 is looking ahead to Race 34 on Sunday at the Adelaide Grand Final after a challenging Saturday result, with TRADIE Energy’s David Reynolds finishing 11th, and DEWALT Racing’s Anton De Pasquale finishing in 13th.

With clear skies, Qualifying for Race 33 was a tale of two halves: De Pasquale would hold on to make the Top Ten Shootout in fifth, but Reynolds was knocked out from Qualifying 1 in 19th place, just one one-thousandth of a second from making it into Q2. De Pasquale would go on to qualify fourth in the Shootout, improving by one position.

Both De Pasquale and Reynolds saw early gains in the opening laps of Race 33, with Reynolds showing strong speed over a long first stint which was responsible for the majority of the positions gained from his stellar comeback drive. De Pasquale was pitted early to capitalise on a strategic undercut, which paid off and enabled the DEWALT Chevrolet to take the lead for a short portion of the race before tyre wear eventually caused him to fall back, but remaining close to the frontrunners.

However, a pivotal moment for Team 18 came with three laps remaining, with De Pasquale sitting in sixth place. Will Brown and Kai Allen, locked in a battle for points in the Finals championship, saw Allen make a late dive and pinball off Brown’s car, forcing contact with the Team 18 driver who was looking for an opportunity to snag a late Top 5 finish. De Pasquale was sent airborne as a result and landed harshly on the front left suspension, damaging it and dropping to 13th place by race end.

Team 18 will be back for Sunday, the final day of competition for the 2025 season, with Race 34 Qualifying starting at 10:00am, followed by the Top Ten Shootout at 12:35pm, and the 78-lap championship-deciding race at 3:10pm. The action can be followed live on Channel 7, alongside Fox Sports and Kayo.

RESULTS AND QUOTES

Anton De Pasquale — Driver, #18 DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Qualifying: P5
TTSO: P4
Race 33: P13

“Crazy day. Qualified for the shootout, which is always really cool, but the shootout was a bit of a mess. Track was really slow, but we still made up a spot, which was awesome. From there, race went all right. We just didn’t have the pace of the first few guys, but still really good, sort of battling for that sort of fifth area.”

And then just got some contact like with two laps to go, broke the top arm and the wheel was just hanging on by a thread, so hung on to it, brought her home. But yeah, we were sort of fighting around fifth and then ended up outside the [Top] Ten somewhere, just bringing the car home. So, look forward to tomorrow.”

“Have a fast car. A few more tweaks and we might be in it.”

David Reynolds — Driver, #20 TRADIE Energy Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Qualifying: P19
Race 33: P11

“Started in 19th and not the best qualifying session, but got a ripper start and ended up like P15 on lap one. So, made some good choices there or got lucky, I’m not sure. Then, settled into good rhythm. Got a good couple of stints underway.”

“My car was pretty consistent. Not overall the fastest, but relatively consistent. And it ended up P11 at the end. So, all in all, that was not a bad day starting 19th, you know. If I could get to 10th at the start of the day from 19th, I would’ve been really happy with that.”

“The boys and girls at TRADIE Energy Racing done a fantastic job. Come back tomorrow, qualify better and let’s see how we go.”