David Reynolds has snapped a five-year drought with a thrilling win in the Gold Coast 500 finale on Sunday.
Reynolds, who last won on the streets of Newcastle in November 2018, held off series leader Brodie Kostecki in an “epic battle” in the dying stages to claim a controversial win for Penrite Racing.
A late safety car – with just seven laps to go – saw the field tighten as Reynolds had to fight off Kostecki in a four-lap burst.
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On the final lap, Reynolds had slid through the chicane and “raised eyebrows” as he managed to pull ahead.
“Everyone is blowing up deluxe about him going through the chicane,” commentator Mark Skaife said.
“There will be a lot of discussion about that later,” Neil Crompton added.
“It was an epic battle.”
Told by his team to “defend like your life depends on it”, it was Reynolds who crossed the line first as celebrations began in the pits.
“I’m just so over the moon,” he told Fox Motorsport.
“It’s been a long time coming.
“(Brodie) definitely was pushing me! I could feel it! I thought I was going to get crashed.
“We had a chat out the back before the race and I said ‘listen, I’m going for the win – if I’ve got to crash into you and you lose the championship, so be it’.
“It was a really hard fought race … I’m so happy about everything.
“I was holding on for dear life!”
Reynolds addressed the final lap controversy after his drought-breaking win.
“I’d be annoyed on Brodie’s side that it happened like that,” he conceded.
“As soon as I turned in, I just lost the rears … I did my best job to make the corner.
“That’s just this track – I didn’t have any bad sportsmanship flags to worry about so I could have cut the kerbs and used that to my advantage. So I did. Thankfully.”
Saturday’s race winner Cam Waters rounded out the podium, with Matt Payne – who moved over midrace to let teammate Reynolds through – and Shane van Gisbergen, who was hit with a bad sportsmanship flag, closing out the top five.
The result means Kostecki now takes a 131-point series lead over van Gisbergen into the final round in Adelaide next month.
Remarkably, the two Gold Coast races saw the two closest competitive margins in consecutive days after Waters defeated van Gisbergen on Saturday.
The late safety car came after James Golding, who was hounding Waters for third, sent his Camaro into a spin and then clipped a passing Scott Pye as he attempted to straighten.
The first safety car came on the opening lap when James Courtney, Macauley Jones and Golding’s teammate Tim Slade’s days all ended abruptly.
Sadly for Jones, he was an innocent bystander in the Courtney and Slade tussle.
Jack Smith was first to be hit with a bad sportsmanship flag for exceeding track limits on lap 24, and was later first to be hit with a five-second penalty on lap 40.
Chaz Mostert, who started on the second row, was shown the bad sportsmanship flag on lap 35 and hit with a five-second penalty on lap 55. The two-time Bathurst winner dropped down the field before his second stop.
Earlier Kostecki had started from pole after a wild shootout that saw Will Brown hit the wall and Cam Waters spin out – but Anton de Pasquale and Shane van Gisbergen started from the back of the 10 after hot lap kerb strikes.
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