De Pasquale: No regrets over Courtney move

Anton De Pasquale heads to Sandown with no regrets over the ill-fated move on James Courtney that ultimately ended his Finals hopes.

The Team 18 driver was left fired up following his elimination at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, having received a penalty over contact with Courtney.

Courtney nudged the Turn 11 barriers, but a hit from a blinded Richie Stanaway forced the Blanchard Racing Team Ford out of the race.

De Pasquale was swiftly penalised, dropping him to 16th, and out of The Finals. It was De Pasquale's second post-race penalty of the weekend, after shortcutting the chicanes in the dying laps on Saturday.

Seven drivers will fight for the championship at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 next weekend, but De Pasquale won’t be one of them. However, the 30-year-old insisted he had to go for it, having fought back from 17th on the grid.

“We had to go for it. We were sort of on the back foot anyway after qualifying, but I had a fast car and was trying to move forward, really,” De Pasquale told Supercars.com.

“It could have gone either way. The biggest positive is we did have a really fast race car, which is a good sign, because that's what we’ve been trying to build towards.”

Post-race, Team 18 owner Charlie Schwerkolt was diplomatic, yet clearly aggrieved. However, the incident earned the ire of Courtney, who took aim at De Pasquale. The move also attracted commentary from former champions Mark Skaife and Mark Winterbottom.

When asked what he thought of the comments, De Pasquale bluntly replied: “Not much.”

He continued: "I mean, we've analysed it internally and obviously you reflect on things yourself, but your whole career, you can look back and do things different. That's sort of how motorsport always will be.

“At the same time you, have to have a go. It’s a hard track to make passes, so when you think there's a chance, you have to go for it. I don't think anyone wouldn't do it.

“I have no regrets. We weren't in a safe position. We had to move forward.”

What is certain, is that De Pasquale and Team 18 now have a chance to go all out at Sandown and Adelaide, and chase trophies without thinking championship.

“We can experiment a little bit in the last two rounds, which you don't get to do too much of when you're trying to stay in The Finals,” De Pasquale said.

“There's not a lot to lose now. Obviously we still want to get trophies to end the year, and I think we can do that. So that's the goal.

“We'll have a crack and try and end the year really strong to take momentum into next year, and try and learn some things on the way.

“Every track we're going to, it's the first time with the team and everyone together. We're sort of learning on the fly. But now, we feel like we're able to roll out of the truck now pretty confident that if we do everything right, we're gonna have a shot and be somewhere towards the front at every track.

“When we're on the back foot, we seem to be able to dig ourself out of it. So year, pretty confident that we should have something pretty good, and we're gonna fight towards the front."

Track action at Sandown commences on Friday November 14.