Erebus travels direct to Townsville

Erebus Motorsport will send its cars straight to Townsville from Darwin rather than returning to its Melbourne base between events.

The Holden squad will remain in Darwin prepping its cars before making the journey to North Queensland ahead of the Watpac Townsville 400.

The move rules out a test opportunity between races for the Victorian team as it continues to impress in its second season as a Holden squad.

The team's general manager, Barry Ryan, explained the decision to avoid multiple long journeys between events.

"We had a pretty good weekend in terms of damage, we stayed mostly out of trouble,” he said.

"Heading into Darwin and knowing the truck’s not coming home, we had to make sure we were equipped with enough spares in the truck to get us through both weekends.

"You always have a backup plan in case something does go wrong but the team has worked hard in the break leading up to it to ensure we are prepared.

"We are here until Wednesday, so we’ll spend the time servicing the car the same way we would in the workshop, it’s really no different to any other round.

"It’s also the perfect opportunity for the team to have a bit of time off while the cars are not in Melbourne."

Car #9 driver David Reynolds secured his best qualifying performances of the season with two fourth places but later admitted a mistake in Sunday's top-10 shoot-out dropped him to seventh.

The Albury-born racer secured a seventh and eighth place across the weekend and sits eighth in the points standings.

Reynolds' engineer Alistair McVean the team made another step forward throughout the races in the Northern Territory.

"It was a positive weekend for us. We came in with a pretty regimented plan of what we needed to do and achieve and treated Friday like our test day," he said.

"Other teams have done some tests before but we've saved it up for here.

"Everything worked as plan and I think we made a step forward. (But) we're still a step away from the big guns.

"We keep making step forwards every weekend. It's almost like our ethos, do something better every time. We're ticking that box every weekend."