Reynolds topped the times at Ipswich, heading a trio of Mercedes. Source: Mark Horsburgh / AAP
DAVID Reynolds stopped Mercedes from scoring a shock practice result yesterday with the Ford up-and-comer blasting a 1m09.59s-lap to end a spectacular three prong attack from the V8 newcomers.
With the Ipswich 360 kicking off with two 75 minute practice sessions, Reynolds came home strong with new rubber to announce his weekend intentions as Erebus Motorsport rose from the ashes with a trio of quick times.
Belted so far this season as they come to terms with their all-new machines, the upstart Mercedes outfit showed they are firmly on the rise with Tim Slade, Lee Holdsworth and Maro Engel stealing the next three places on the timesheets behind Reynolds.
The team owned by billionaire Westfiled's heiress Betty Saunders-Klimenko charged through the second session with new soft tyres and were only denied a practice sweep by Reynolds' last ditch charge.
The solid pace has given the team validation of their efforts as they try to match the big guns of the sport in the V8 arms race.
"It was a very good day for us," second-placed Slade said.
"We actually put on a fresh set of tyres at the end and went slower so we have a bit of work to do tonight. We need to work out what that was but we can also look at it as being a good thing because our old tyres were fast.
"I guess we have been in the top ten in the last couple of races and this weekend there is no reason why we shouldn't be there again. We tested here last week and it was very productive. I don't want to predict to much but it would be nice to carry on with our form and even go better."
Holdsworth was equally confident of carrying his practice speed into today's race and end his poor run of results.
"I am confident of getting into the top ten," Holdsworth said.
"I was confident of getting in the top ten at the last couple of rounds. We have gained some speed and the team has put a lot of hard work in to get these gains. I haven't been able to put it all together and get the right set-up for qualifying and it has hurt.
"I need to improve there and not get caught up in trouble."
With the likes of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes failing to fire a genuine shot, Reynolds found the top of the leader board and is hoping to convert his practice pace into the first race victory of his career.
"Hopefully I can get that win," Reynolds said.
"I had a pretty good car in Townsville on the Sunday but didn't have the strategy of HRT. I have missed a couple of opportunities but we are always trying and always trying new things. I want to win races but we just haven't got there yet."
Reynolds admitted his practice speed was thanks to tyres he saved in Townsville when he did not finish.
"100 percent of the speed today was from that," Reynolds said.
"We saved our soft tyres from the Sunday race and we knew we would be quick here."
Lowndes claimed he had a good car despite finishing back in 20th place.
"It's been an interesting day," Lowndes said.
"We actually used three sets of tyres. We used the hard set to begin with, we had two other sets which were soft. We went through our normal program changing things.
"The car actually changed more in balance in the tyre life, than what it did instead of the car setup. But all in all, not too bad. The car balance in the end wasn't too bad, we just didn't have the grip level in the tyre to match it, so we're not too concerned at this stage, but of course sitting at 20th is never a good feeling.
"Tomorrow we've got an opportunity to make amends for it. The guys at the top of the tree were using brand new sets of tyres, which we will probably opt to tomorrow to see where we are, but other than that I'm pretty happy."
The V8s have one final practice session at 10:15am EST, followed by qualifying at 1:30pm ahead of the weekend's first race at 3:40pm.
TIMES - V8 Supercars, Queensland Raceway - Practice 1 (75 min)
Pos Driver Car Time Gap1 Tim Slade Erebus 1:10.2188 2 Lee Holdsworth Erebus 1:10.2755 0:00.05673 Scott Pye Holden 1:10.3553 0:00.13654 Will Davison Ford 1:10.3923 0:00.17355 James Courtney Holden 1:10.4162 0:00.19746 Jamie Whincup Holden 1:10.4737 0:00.25497 Scott McLaughlin Holden 1:10.4829 0:00.26418 Mark Winterbottom Ford 1:10.4845 0:00.26579 Alex Premat Holden 1:10.6321 0:00.413310 David Wall Holden 1:10.6333 0:00.414511 Jason Bright Holden 1:10.6776 0:00.458812 Fabian Coulthard Holden 1:10.6963 0:00.477513 Jonathon Webb Holden 1:10.8027 0:00.583914 David Reynolds Ford 1:10.8029 0:00.584115 Rick Kelly Nissan 1:10.8657 0:00.646916 Craig Lowndes Holden 1:10.8811 0:00.662317 Dean Fiore Holden 1:10.9380 0:00.719218 Chaz Mostert Ford 1:10.9754 0:00.756619 Russell Ingall Holden 1:10.1342 0:00.915420 Maro Engel Erebus 1:11.3408 0:01.122021 Garth Tander Holden 1:11.4409 0:01.222122 Tony D'Alberto Holden 1:11.5097 0:01.290923 Alex Davison Ford 1:11.5379 0:01.319124 Tim Blanchard Ford 1:11.7064 0:01.487625 Todd Kelly Nissan 1:11.8734 0:01.654626 James Moffat Nissan 1:11.9802 0:01.761427 Michael Caruso Nissan 1:12.2492 0:02.030428 Shane van Gisbergen Holden 1:14.7827 0:04.5639
TIMES - V8 Supercars, Queensland Raceway - Practice 2 (75 min)
Pos Driver Car Time Gap1 David Reynolds Ford 1:09.59262 Lee Holdsworth Erebus 1:09.6531 0:00.06053 Tim Slade Erebus 1:09.7750 0:00.18244 Maro Engel Erebus 1:09.8239 0:00.23135 Fabian Coulthard Holden 1:09.8833 0:00.29076 David Wall Holden 1:10.0002 0:00.40767 Will Davison Ford 1:10.0415 0:00.44898 Jason Bright Holden 1:10.0416 0:00.44909 Alex Davison Ford 1:10.1011 0:00.508510 Chaz Mostert Ford 1:10.1296 0:00.537011 Mark Winterbottom Ford 1:10.2008 0:00.608212 Alex Premat Holden 1:10.2155 0:00.622913 Jamie Whincup Holden 1:10.2296 0:00.637014 James Moffat Nissan 1:10.2585 0:00.665915 James Courtney Holden 1:10.2772 0:00.684916 Dean Fiore Holden 1:10.3114 0:00.718817 Scott McLaughlin Holden 1:10.3379 0:00.745318 Russell Ingall Holden 1:10.3440 0:00.751419 Garth Tander Holden 1:10.3776 0:00.785020 Craig Lowndes Holden 1:10.4117 0:00.819121 Scott Pye Holden 1:10.5094 0:00.916822 Rick Kelly Nissan 1:10.5228 0:00.930223 Michael Caruso Nissan 1:10.5336 0:00.941024 Todd Kelly Nissan 1:10.5507 0:00.958125 Shane van Gisbergen Holden 1:10.7810 0:01.188426 Tim Blanchard Ford 1:10.8247 0:01.232127 Jonathon Webb Holden 1:10.9219 0:01.329328 Tony D'Alberto Holden 1:11.0157 0:01.4231
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