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Reynolds' lap of Hidden Valley

17 Jun 2014
The Bottle-O star talks v8supercars.com.au through a lap of the 2.9km Darwin circuit, where he earned two ARMOR ALL Pole Positions last year.
4 mins by James Pavey
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The Bottle-O star Ford David Reynolds still sees a lost opportunity from last year's SKYCITY Triple Crown and is determined to get back on track at the Hidden Valley circuit this weekend.

Reynolds qualified on ARMOR ALL Pole Position for two of the three races, but it wasn't to be for the 28-year old, who had to wait until October's Gold Coast 600 to earn his first win.

While Reynolds admits his Ford Performance Racing Falcon started the year off the pace, he's now feeling comfortable and on-track to tackle the circuits he enjoys - the first cab off the ranks is Darwin.

Reynolds talked v8supercars.com.au through a lap of the 2.9km circuit.

"The straight's about 250km an hour," Reynolds began. The startline is on the straight, with the cars traveling anti-clockwise around the circuit notorious for high degradation.

"Big braking zone, down to second gear -a really long, low, 180 degree corner that comes back on itself (turn one), so it makes car positioning very important.

"Up to fifth gear, and the next complex is like a very fast right-left. On new tyres you can straight line it pretty easy but on old tyres it becomes quite oversteery and a bit out of control through there... If you're on old tyres in the race and you're trying to pass someone it's a bit hairy there and it's quite fun!

"And then you're (up to) about 190-200km an hour so it's very fast.

"Braking, down to second gear, the car rear locks quite a bit here because there's a little hump in the road that goes downhill.

"You're using all the road available, plus more -there's a little concrete strip we use as well to get extra traction off the track.

"Down to turn sixyou need to get up to about 120km and then brake down for a first gear corner, probably about 60km an hour and one of the slowest corners in V8 Supercars.

"The surface is really bad here so in the races it becomes quite hard to get the car out of the corner here. There's a lot of wheel spin, not a lot of traction...Good passing opportunities are into turn one, turn five and six - they're your main passing opportunities.

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"Up to turn seven you're in first gear, touch of the brakes, it's a very fast, longish corner you spend a lot of time in. The car's laterally loaded there so it's quite hard on the rear tyres. Ramp up the throttle ... down to the next complex.

"Down to the big double left, brake at the change of surface, which is a really good braking marker, but you're third gear there. It's quite a fast-ish corner, but it's really hard to get the traction out of the exit because the exit like tightens up and the car wants to oversteer towards the kerb and you can do a lot of damage there.

"Then the last corner - braking into the last corner there's a big bump on entry, which unstables the car and makes it lock and turning, it's quite a long turn and the drive, it's important to get a good run on the straight."

Reynolds knows how to nail a lap of the 2.9km circuit, where he says he had his best results in qualifying in his career in 2013.

Can he do it this year? Purchase your tickets for the SKYCITY Triple Crown, running from June 20-22, now and stay tuned to v8supercars.com.au from the latest news from the Top End.

And for those looking to attend the following event, the Castrol Townsville 500 -Driven by TAFE Queensland -purchasing a Gold or Platinum grandstand ticket for the Nortthern Queensland event could see you sitting in the car with Reynolds for a hot lap around the street circuit (click here for full details).

Reynolds agrees Townsville is one of the best circuits to have a hot lap around, and loves seeing a fan's reaction when they get out of his Bottle-O Falcon.

"Townsville's a really good one (for a hot lap) because it's a street track - you're really close, there are some fast bits and some slow bits, big curves, the car's got a lot of attitude," he said.

"It's good giving people the experience, even though they're only sitting, they're not driving, which is another realm again.

"I'm a terrible passenger - really, really bad, even in a race car!"

Reynolds currently sits ninth in the Championship points

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