Team 18 has topped both Friday practice sessions ahead of the Sandown 500, with Cub Cadet Racing’s Anton De Pasquale and TRADIE Energy’s David Reynolds both setting their cars atop the leaderboards.

Team 18 started its Sandown 500 weekend in the best way possible, with De Pasquale leading Practice 1 with a time of 1:08:963 in the #18 Cub Cadet Chevrolet; Reynolds trailed closely behind in the #20 TRADIE Energy car in P3.

The team’s good fortune continued into Practice 2, albeit with the roles reversed; Reynolds managed to snag a 1:08.522 lap fast enough to top the second session right at the end of the day, with De Pasquale showing strong consistency finishing in third.

Team 18 will be back out on track for Saturday starting with knockout Qualifying from 11:50am AEST, followed by the Top Ten Shootout at 12:40pm and Race 30 at 3:20pm (81 laps). All the action will be live on Fox Sports and Kayo.

RESULTS AND QUOTES

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

Practice 1: P1
Practice 2: P3

“Wrapping up the day here from Sandown. Good day for us in practice, first for Dave and third for me in Practice 2, and we were both at the front in Practice 1 as well.

“Quick cars in both sessions. The track’s a very old surface, which we haven’t had for a while in our category compared to recent rounds, so degradation will be a big factor. But so far, the cars are looking good.”

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

Practice 1: P3
Practice 2: P1

“We rolled out fast and made good progress. Normally it’s really hard to do that, you have problems, you never make them better, and you just end up rolling around. But we made good steps, and that’s a good sign for the weekend.

“You don’t know what other people had, whether they ran Super Softs or not, but we’re happy in our own little world so far.

“Tomorrow’s Super Softs will be different for us because we ran the Soft today, but the last few rounds the engineers have been really good at the switch, so hopefully they can do it again tomorrow. Should be good.”