Recap of Cub Cadet and Team 18 at 2024 NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint

Friday

David Reynolds put the TRADIE Beer Racing Camaro fastest in Practice 1 at the Tasmania SuperSprint, with Cub Cadet Racing’s Mark Winterbottom fifth fastest in a strong start for Team 18 at Symmons Plains.

With one 60-minute session held today, teams used up the whole session to fine tune their qualifying and race setups for the weekend ahead, navigating traffic around the short 2.41km circuit.

Reynolds’ session was interrupted early by an engine misfire but was quickly resolved ensuring the team could maximise the rest of the session.

Winterbottom had a solid session as he debuted the new colours of the Cub Cadet Camaro for the first time today.

Mark Winterbottom, #18 Cub Cadet Racing Chevrolet ZL1 Camaro

Practice 1: 5th

“Good day. We learnt a lot today. We ran a little bit different car to Dave and he's got strengths in spots and I've got strengths in spots. We've got a really good lot of data, so we'll adapt his strengths for tomorrow. We know where it is and hopefully get two cars up the front and stay dry.

“I think from a team point of view, we learnt a lot, and the more data you get, the more it makes sense, the better we go. If it's dry tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it. If it's wet, it's a lottery.”

Saturday

TRADIE Beer Racing’s David Reynolds scored a ninth-place finish in Race 17 of the Supercars Championship at the Tasmania SuperSprint, while Cub Cadet Racing’s Mark Winterbottom finished 18th after being taken out on the final lap.

After a strong practice showing on Friday, the heavens opened and rain greeted the championship for Saturday’s action which began with a practice session in the morning and Qualifying at 1pm.

Winterbottom and Reynolds progressed through to the second session with ease, and were on course to progress through to the final part for the top ten cars, before a red flag in the dying stages prevented a final qualifying effort, with Reynolds qualifying 11th and Winterbottom 14th.

Starting 11th, Reynolds got the hole shot around the outside of Turn 4 and made up a couple of positions from the get go.

Reynolds pitted on Lap 23 for rear tyres, while Winterbottom pitted on Lap 30, with the pair rejoining in 8th and 13th respectively.

Reynolds held eighth in the closing stages before crossing the line in ninth.

Winterbottom was on course for a 12th place finish before he was hit from behind by Heimgartner at the hairpin and dropped back to 19th.

Heimgartner received a 15 second penalty for his role in the incident, promoting Winterbottom back to 18th in a tough day for the Cub Cadet Racing Camaro.

The pair are keen to return to the track tomorrow with dry conditions forecasted and hope to start further up the front to capitalise on their raw speed.

Mark Winterbottom, #18 Cub Cadet Racing Chevrolet ZL1 Camaro

Practice 2: 21st
Qualifying: 14th
Race 17:

“Frustrating day. We were unlucky with the red flag. We would have got in the ten, and had a car good enough for top five.

“When you start on the back foot, you’re in traffic, it’s hard to pass and you’re out of sequence. I got crashed into at the hairpin at the end.

"We're still good enough for top ten, but if we started where we should have qualified it would have been a different day.

“We'll go again tomorrow and hopefully we’ll be fast enough to show our speed.”

Sunday

Cub Cadet Racing’s Mark Winterbottom stormed through from 23rd to ninth in Race 18, the second and final race of the Tasmania SuperSprint at Symmons Plains Raceway.

Qualifying saw TRADIE Beer Racing’s David Reynolds progress through to Q3 as the fastest car in Q2 and qualified third on the grid. However, he could have well been on a lap for pole position if it weren’t for a stuck gear coming out of the hairpin. Winterbottom struggled for balance on his flying lap in Q1 and qualified 23rd.

Reynolds dropped to fourth off the start, before he was turned around by Kostecki at the Turn 4 Hairpin on Lap 7, bringing out the first safety car of the race.

Reynolds rejoined the field two laps down and circulated to the finish to place 22nd.

As Winterbottom came in for his first pit stop, he was hit hard in the right rear corner by Kostecki who was exiting his pit box after his stop.

A second safety car period saw Winterbottom hit the lane again for a fresh set of tyres, and charged through from 19th to ninth with a clean set of heels to rescue a top ten finish on a challenging day.

Team 18 head to Winton Motor Raceway for their pre-enduro test on Tuesday 3 September, ahead of the Sandown 500 on 13-15 September.

Mark Winterbottom, #18 Cub Cadet Racing Chevrolet ZL1 Camaro

Practice 3: 18th
Qualifying: 23rd
Race 18: 9th

“It was a weekend of just missed opportunities. The cars were fast, Dave was very fast, he did a very good job this weekend.

“We adopted his car for that last race like for like and my thing lit up as well and was really fast. I qualified 23rd today and drove through to 9th, which was great. So as a team it obviously was a very strong weekend.

“Now we have a good starting point for Sandown because the way the cars handle here and the setups often trend really well for Sandown,

“It’s a good few weeks coming up now. We test and then we start our endurance campaign which hopefully is quite strong given the way the car's finished here.

“It was nice to see Cub Cadet on board too. The plan of doing a burnout on the grass, we'll have to wait till Sandown.”