Mark Fogarty is an award-winning motorsport writer.
DAVID REYNOLDS
David Reynolds emerged as a genuine championship contender with Erebus Motorsport in 2018. One year on since his win in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Mark Fogarty sits down with Supercars’ class clown to discuss his progression with the team.
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he class clown of Supercars is the perfect front man for quirky Erebus Motorsport and despite flirting with regular success, “Crazy” David Reynolds has no plans to change his always entertaining and often confronting ways. No regrets, no apologies, no changes. Reynolds is determined to remain as unconventional and unpredictable as ever despite becoming a regular front-runner. Reynolds has vowed that success won’t stop him saying and doing outrageous things. His outbursts and antics are a big part of his popularity, which has only increased since he’s led his fellow band of outcasts at Erebus Motorsport to giant-killing status. Reynolds is unrepentant about the sexist jokes that caused both outrage and mirth before the 2015 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 – for which he was fined a record $25,000 – and maintains his verbal faux pas are not premeditated.
He is also adamant that he will remain politically incorrect. Clowning around is embedded in the Albury-born racer’s country boy nature and his spontaneous podium pranks – from hurling pot plants to throwing microphones – will continue to enliven otherwise predictable presentations. He popularised the ‘shoey’ – drinking the winner’s champagne from one of his race shoes – and is looking for an alternative now that it has been hi-jacked commercially by Formula 1. Along with his equally unrestrained team owner Betty Klimenko, Reynolds is the most colourful character in Supercars. He is also one of the most talented, contending for the title in ’15 before being forced out of Ford Performance Racing (now Tickford Racing) and into the arms of Klimenko. With cast-off co-driver Luke Youlden, Reynolds scored a fairytale win at Bathurst last year and has continued to bother the pacesetters this season, winning races as the tight-knit squad established itself as the second best Holden ZB Commodore outfit. His rookie teammate Anton De Pasquale has also shown flashes of threatening speed and only the team’s inconsistency has stopped Melbourne-based Reynolds from staying in touch with runaway title combatants Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen. At 33, Reynolds is arguably at his peak. He is fast, funny and flighty, an endearing combination that makes him Supercars’ most popular – and unpredictable – outsider. He is set for more upset wins that will only increase his and Erebus Motorsport’s following as the sport’s favourite underdogs. SUPERCAR XTRA
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24/7/18 9:45 am