Sandown Supercars: Reynolds edges Whincup for pole

Reynolds and Whincup staged a thrilling battle in the closing stages of the second 20-lap heat that determines the grid for tomorrow's main race, the reigning Bathurst 1000 winner doing just enough to secure pole for the first enduro of the season.

Andre Heimgartner started the second qualifying race from pole thanks to co-driver Aaren Russell's success in the opening heat earlier today, but the Nissan driver blew his chance even before the lights went out. The Kiwi crept out of his grid box a handful of seconds early, which was followed up by a sluggish getaway.

That was great news for Reynolds, who got a clear getaway from the outside of the front row and streaked into the lead. By the end of the first lap the Erebus driver was 2.1s clear of Scott McLaughlin, that advantage out to 2.6s two laps later when first Safety Car was called.

The culprit for the caution was James Courtney, the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver firing into the wall on the run down to Dandenong Road, plucking the right front wheel off his Commodore, and coming to a rest in the gravel.

The restart went green again on Lap 8, Reynolds picking up where he left off. He had little trouble gapping the two Penske Fords behind him.

However the biggest threat to his lead was further back. From sitting sixth at the restart, Whincup went on a charge. He quickly cleared Nick Percat, before pulling off a pair of daring moves at Turn 6 to dispose of Mark Winterbottom and Fabian Coulthard.

On Lap 13 he eased past McLaughlin into Turn 1 to take second, leaving him with a 1.3s gap to Reynolds.

With two laps to go the gap was nothing, Whincup glued to the back of the Erebus Holden. But that was as close as it got, Reynolds holding off the reigning series champion by 0.2s.

“It was a bizarre, crazy day, but it was all set up by Luke who did an amazing job for us in the fully wet conditions,” said Reynolds.

“We got very lucky with the strategy call. If we were the lead car at that point we probably would have pitted like Anton did.

“Things just organically happened today and we kind of benefited from it.

“That last couple of laps, my rear tyres had gone off, I was struggling a bit and Jamie was a lot faster than me, so I’m ever-so-grateful to get pole.”

Scott McLaughlin finished the race third, the title contender cruising around just ahead of Coulthard after the pair were passed by Whincup,

Winterbottom finished fifth, while Heimgartner came home sixth after his troublesome start.

Chaz Mostert and Tim Slade were next, while Anton De Pasquale survived a wild final-lap battle with Triple Eight pair Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen to finish ninth.

Lowndes ended up getting the better of that intra-team battle with van Gisbergen, the pair swapping spots a couple of times in the latter stages of the race. The Kiwi had got by Lowndes, a logical outcome given the finely-balanced title fight, but Lowndes hit back on the final lap and squeezed his way back past into 10th.

That means he and Steve Richards will start from the outside of the fifth row tomorrow, while van Gisbergen and Earl Bamber will be on the inside of the sixth row.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	9	David Reynolds   Luke Youlden	Holden Commodore ZB
2	1	Jamie Whincup  Paul Dumbrell	Holden Commodore ZB
3	17	Alexandre Prémat   Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	0.2660
4	12	Tony D'Alberto   Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	0.3630
5	5	Mark Winterbottom   Dean Canto	Ford Falcon FG X	0.6877
6	7	Andre Heimgartner   Aaren Russell	Nissan Altima	0.6789
7	55	Chaz Mostert   James Moffat	Ford Falcon FG X	0.6280
8	14	Tim Slade   Ash Walsh	Holden Commodore ZB	0.5684
9	99	Will Brown  Anton de	Holden Commodore ZB	0.7905
10	888	Steven Richards   Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	0.2701
11	97	Earl Bamber   Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	0.2134
12	230	Alex Davison   Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	0.8676
13	6	David Russell   Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	0.8080
14	21	Dale Wood   Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	0.7553
15	33	Garth Tander   Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	0.7630
16	15	Rick Kelly  Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	0.6548
17	56	Richie Stanaway   Steven Owen	Ford Falcon FG X	0.6255
18	23	Michael Caruso   Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	0.5809
19	2	Warren Luff   Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	0.4387
20	19	Jonathon Webb   Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	0.7397
21	18	Lee Holdsworth   Jason Bright	Holden Commodore ZB	0.5667
22	78	Simona de Silvestro   Alex Rullo	Nissan Altima	0.8289
23	35	Bryce Fullwood   Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	0.8613
24	34	James Golding  Richard Muscat	Holden Commodore ZB	0.3980
25	8	Nick Percat   Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	0.6664
	25	James Courtney  Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore ZB	11.8317