“It was unreal to get into the car," Reynolds admitted, "It was a pretty unbelievable experience, as we have been sitting around talking about it for months and wondering if it was going to happen. To finally come here for the first round and do a couple of laps was great.
“I would have liked to have been in the top 20, but the blokes around me have a lot more experience on new tyres than I do, and that is one thing that I just have to try and chip away at. We missed quite a few laps in practice because of small mechanical issues, but we pressed on. At the end of the day, I would have liked to have been about half a second quicker.”
Earlier in the day, fellow rookie Dale Wood walked away from a spectacular crash at Adelaide's notorious turn eight but, having had his Holden Commodore hit both the outside and inside concrete walls, was forced to miss qualifying. The new #16 Hi-Tec Oils Commodore will be repaired this evening - the crew has to replace the left side lower control arm, suspension upright, rear differential housing, Watts linkage, front bar, rear bar, boot lid, rear wing, rear quarter panel and rear door as part of the repairs - and Wood expects to be back in action tomorrow.
“I was just stepping things up a bit when it happened,” the rookie revealed, “We missed the first leg of practice due to a small mechanical issue, and I tried to cruise into it and step things up gradually - but I probably stepped things up at turn eight a bit too quickly.
“I was already going pretty well through there, and probably didn't need to find too much more speed, but I just got in a bit too hot and got on a different line and lost the rear. We took a hit, but I'm fine. I feel for the boys, but we'll work on it at get the Hi-Tec Oils Commodore back out there for tomorrow.”
