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Reynolds baffled by Supercars startline woes

David Reynolds says he's been left baffled by a string poor starts that have hampered his Supercars form.

David Reynolds, Erebus Motorsport Holden

David Reynolds, Erebus Motorsport Holden

Dirk Klynsmith / Motorsport Images

Having shaped up as a title contender earlier in the season, Reynolds has lost ground in the standings with a five-race streak of finishes outside the top five.

In four of those five races he's also finished behind where he qualified, Saturday night's Sydney outing the first time he's improved on his starting position since he won on the Sunday in Darwin back in June.

According to Reynolds that's at least partly down to a string of bad starts, the reigning Bathurst winner adamant he's been unable to get his Commodore off the line cleanly for the last three races.

"[It's costing me] badly, yeah," said Reynolds.

"I've had three bad starts in a row. Usually I get gun starts and pass some cars. Maybe I've got bad technique, or the clutch set-up needs to be a bit different. But it's just not feeling the same.

"Starting one of these cars is a very fine line between getting a ripper, and an average one. But instead of getting an average one I've been getting a f***ing terrible one and going backwards.

"[In Sydney] I lost four spots, maybe more. A lot of cars went past me."

Adding to Reynolds' concerns is that he's unable to pinpoint why he's suddenly struggling to get away from the line.

He swears he's not changed his approach to launching the car, and says that the team is equally bullish that nothing has changed mechanically.

Both team and driver will look further into the issue before the next round at Tailem Bend.

"To be honest, I have no idea. I wish I had an idea," he said.

"Generally my technique doesn't change, that's the funny thing. How much throttle percentage you use, how much clutch you have, generally that's the only thing that can make a big difference. The rest is mechanical.

"I've got this process in my brain. I do this first, and then this, this, this, and this, ready for the start. Wait for the light to come out, load the clutch up and go.

"I've done that my whole life, and I've always got good starts. And something has gone astray.

"It's generally a mechanical thing that's causing it. The team says it's fine, so I'm not really sure."

Reynolds finished seventh for a third consecutive race in Sydney, and currently sits fifth in the standings, 549 points behind leader Scott McLaughlin.

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