Team 18 are set for the 2025 Repco Bathurst 1000 after a strong showing in Saturday’s Top Ten Shootout, with Anton De Pasquale and Harri Jones qualifying ninth in the #18 DEWALT Chevrolet and David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth starting 15th in the #20 TRADIE Energy Chevrolet.

De Pasquale wrapped up Saturday’s Top Ten Shootout in ninth place after progressing through Friday’s qualifying session, marking another strong recovery for the DEWALT crew following their rebuild effort earlier in the weekend. While not entirely satisfied with the lap, struggling for the tyres to come to optimum temperature in the first sector, De Pasquale said the team is still in the hunt heading into the 161-lap enduro, with unsettled weather expected to play a role in Sunday’s race.

Jones completed valuable laps in Saturday’s final practice sessions, preparing for his first Bathurst 1000 start with Team 18.

On the TRADIE Energy side of the garage, Reynolds and Holdsworth continued refining their setup across Saturday’s two practice sessions, chasing rear grip in the hotter track conditions. The duo were encouraged by improvements late in the day and are confident in their race pace for Sunday’s 1000km classic.

Both Team 18 Chevrolets will hit the track for Sunday’s 20-minute warm-up session at 8:30am AEDT before the 2025 Repco Bathurst 1000 gets underway at 11:45am. The race will be broadcast live on Channel 7, Fox Sports and Kayo.

RESULTS & QUOTES

Anton De Pasquale – Driver, #18 DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro

Practice 5: 19th
Practice 6: 8th
Shootout: 9th

“Cool to be in the Shootout. We didn’t do a very good job of it and struggled a bit through the first sector, but that’s all part of it. We’re still in the hunt.

We did some race running today with a bit of weather floating around, so tomorrow’s looking like a bit of a mystery so we’ll see how we go.

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

“Saturday done and dusted here at Bathurst. We’ll start P9 for the Great Race tomorrow, not what we hoped for in the Top Ten Shootout, but it’s a solid place to start and we can work from there.

“Tomorrow’s going to be a big day. There’s some rain in the forecast, so it’ll be about getting the little things right, making sure we’ve got a fast race car, and being ready for anything.”

David Reynolds – Driver, #20 TRADIE Energy Racing Chevrolet Camaro

Practice 5: 11th
Practice 6: 12th

“Practice 5 and 6 today, Lee did all of Practice 5, the co-driver session, and did a good job. We rolled the car out trying to copy a bit of Car #18’s setup just to see what it would do, but it didn’t really suit our car. It had a lot of oversteer and was hard to drive.

“We then trended back toward our setup from yesterday and I jumped in, but we still had quite a bit of oversteer. We’re having a deep dive into the data now and thinking about what we need for our race car tomorrow.

“What we roll out with in warm-up is pretty much what we’ll stick with. I don’t think the track was in great condition today, it was quite warm, lots of UV, and that made things pretty tough. The car’s a lot harder to drive than it was at the start of the weekend, which isn’t ideal the day before the biggest race of the year.”

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

“Hard to know exactly where we’re at, to be honest. The balance of the car we rolled out with today didn’t feel great as a race car, which was a bit of a surprise. I think the hot track conditions played a big part in how the balance felt.

“The positive is that we tuned it up a fair bit for the next practice, but there’s still a little more work to do before the race tomorrow.”