Team 18 were firing on all cylinders for Race 31 of the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship, with Cub Cadet Racing’s Anton De Pasquale scoring a brilliant second place finish at Sandown, while TRADIE Energy’s David Reynolds fought through the field to a fantastic ninth from 21st.

Changing weather conditions played a factor in Sunday qualifying at the second event of the Sandown 500. De Pasquale was able to hold on to a provisional pole position after Qualifying which was converted into a second place following the Top Ten Shootout, where mixed conditions varied the lap times throughout.

Race 31 started off with a chaotic early bout of classic Melbourne rain, but De Pasquale held on through the challenging conditions to take an early lead over Broc Feeney, while Reynolds showed strong pace and jumped up through the field during the pit stop cycle.

The rain would eventually subside in the second half of the race and allow the team to focus on maintaining track position, capitalising on other teams misfortunes. De Pasquale would hold on to second place after a lengthy battle with Will Brown, while Reynolds held off a hard-charging Andre Heimgartner and Cooper Murray.

Team 18 will now turn their attention towards finishing the season strong at the Adelaide Grand Final, starting on 27-30 November.

RESULTS & QUOTES

Anton De Pasquale, driver #18 Cub Cadet Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Qualifying (Race 31): P1

TTSO: P2

Race 31: P2

“Crazy weekend for us, mix of weather, different tyres and all sorts of things, but we had really good pace all weekend. Sunday’s race was wild, rain, dry, everything in between, a bit of oil on the track, all that.

“Had a crack at the lead, finished second, which is really good. Original pole as well, so a really strong day for everyone. The car was fast, I was really happy with it, and it was great to back up Friday’s speed on this tyre today, even in the mixed conditions. Had heaps of fun and looking forward to Adelaide.”

David Reynolds, driver #20 TRADIE Energy Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Qualifying (Race 31): P21

Race 31: P9

“Today the qualifying session didn’t go to plan. We made a mistake with the intermittent conditions, we pitted for another set of tyres trying to go for the maximum lap time, but we didn’t really have a good banker and probably played it completely wrong. That put us starting from 21st.

“Started 21st and got underway. The first couple of laps were pretty hectic, there was a lot of oil down, puddles here and there, and it was sketchy to use all the kerbs and really drive how you normally drive that track. Then it started to rain, so we came in and put wets on. We might have pitted a bit too late because it got really wet really quickly. I didn’t know if it would hang around or dry up, but the rain kept sitting there and the slicks were still good enough.

“Then it got very wet, very fast. Came in, put wets on, and had reasonable pace. I thought I was flying at one point, the problem was I couldn’t see where I was going with all the spray. But once I could actually see what was happening in front of me, the car was performing well. It was easy to drive, had good pace, and I just wish it kept raining because I think I would’ve had a better race if it did.

“Then it dried up and we came in and put dries on. I think we were 11th at the time. Then a few cars crashed into each other, Waters and Payne, and that put us ninth. We raced around ninth. Fullwood and Heimgartner were either side of me with a two-second gap at the start, and by the end it was really close and getting a bit out of control. I caught Fullwood and couldn’t get past him, then Andre caught me and couldn’t get past me. There was a lot of pressure because those two were racing for pit priority in pit lane, so I had a thing in my head saying they’re the ones you have to race the hardest.

“All in all, a good day besides qualifying. If we’d qualified at the front, I definitely think I could have raced at the front. Just needed to make that one call better in quali because getting knocked out in Q1 sucked. Can’t wait for Adelaide, great place, great track, and I can’t wait to get there.”