Team 18 continued to demonstrate strong early pace during Friday running of the 2025 Adelaide Grand Final, before chaotic rain disrupted DEWALT Racing’s Anton De Pasquale and TRADIE Energy’s David Reynolds’ efforts. De Pasquale would finish ninth, Reynolds 20th.
Early morning cloud cover only saw light sprinkles of rain during second practice, with De Pasquale finishing fifth place and Reynolds in a solid eighth. De Pasquale showed some strong pace towards the end of the session with two consecutive fastest laps around the streets of Adelaide.
Qualifying proved to be tougher than expected as the weather compounded and continued to be a factor. Reynolds was knocked out from Qualifying 1 in 13th place, while an engine failure from Andre Heimgartner’s car cost De Pasquale from setting a final push lap in Qualifying 2, forcing him to start from ninth.
The weather continued to prove a challenge ahead of Race 32 with a delayed start. Both De Pasquale and Reynolds managed to climb up early in the race before De Pasquale dropped back while managing tyres, while Reynolds had an early run off the track. Team 18’s efforts to fight for a Top 5 with a late tactical pitstop was undercut by an unfortunately timed safety car, which eventually developed into a red flag that ended the race early.
Team 18 will be back on Saturday for Race 33 Qualifying starting at 10:05am, with the Top Ten Shootout at 12:35pm, and the 78-lap race at 3:15pm. 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
Practice: P5
Qualifying: P9
Race 32: P9
“A hectic day. It threw everything at us. We had practice and qualifying this morning, qualified well in the top 10. End of the second session we got stuck on some oil and we qualified ninth, but we were fourth before that, which was really good.”
“The car sort of backed up the speed from yesterday, which was nice. And then the race, the heavens opened up a crazy amount of rain. Very, very tricky conditions, with no practice in the rain. It didn’t quite have the speed. We sort of made a couple spots early and then sort of plateaued and started to fall back.”
“So, we’ll have a look at how we can do it differently if it rains again, make the car last a bit better in those conditions. But overall, very crazy day, and we’ll see what the rest of the weekend does.”
David Reynolds — Driver, #20 TRADIE Energy Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Practice: P8
Qualifying: P13
Race 32: P20
“Rolled out this morning as one of the fastest cars again, so going into qualifying, we had high hope. But in practice when we put the new tire on, it kind of didn’t really grip up how I thought it was going to grip up. I felt like on the older tire, my car’s much better balanced relative to the field, like our relative base is pretty good.”
“Coming to qualifying, the Trans Am category was on before us and it took a while for the tractor to clean up, and then I think we just stuffed up the timing a little bit at the end there. Maybe the pressures were a bit too high… we just ended up 13th, which is not ideal, but that’s not where we wanted to be or thought we should have ended up. But we’ve got a couple more chances over the weekend hopefully if it stays dry.”
“In the race, like the first like lap or two, I was like, oh, I think I’m going to go okay. Like, I had a bit of pace relative to the field… and then it just disappeared really quickly. Honestly don’t know why or how. It was probably pressures. There’s always a reason why things happen. But then when the track was sort of dry, I still didn’t feel that quick. My pace was better, but it wasn’t like the other guys’ pace.”
“So, we need to really look at why and how what was going on. Then it started to pour down rain and it was torrential. That’s when Randle hit the fence and they red flagged it and called it the race. I’m kind of glad they did because I was frightened for most of that race; I didn’t have much grip out there.”
“We’ll try again tomorrow, and we’ll have a much better run.”