Traffic nearly gets Anton De Pasquale to Grand Final
Team 18 driver was “hoping for a shitshow” as leaders hit traffic
Matt Payne beat De Pasquale by 0.7s at Sandown
Chevrolet star Anton De Pasquale has quipped he was “hoping for a shitshow” as the leaders hit traffic, in what was ultimately a narrow elimination.
The Team 18 driver fell just 0.7s short of victory that would have propelled De Pasquale and General Motors into the bp Adelaide Grand Final.
De Pasquale pushed eventual winner Matt Payne all the way, and closed the gap in the final stint. Late on, it appeared backmarkers would add tension.
Payne and De Pasquale picked off Rylan Gray, before they caught the duelling Erebus Motorsport Camaros of Jarrod Hughes and Jobe Stewart.
The margin came down, and Stewart got out of the way exiting Turn 4. De Pasquale got a tow, but with Aaron Cameron ahead, didn’t have enough.
In the bp Cooldown Room with Payne and Cooper Murray, De Pasquale quipped he was “hoping for a shitshow,” but it didn’t eventuate.
“I gave it everything, was trying to hunt him down,” De Pasquale said in PIRTEK Victory Lane.
"Thought I got a good start. He just got a little bit better one.
"The pace at the front was really quick. It wasn’t degging as much as I'd hoped it would. And yeah, we gave it everything, obviously just missed out, but super proud of the year so far.
"Obviously, we'll go to Adelaide, try and win a couple races there and keep on going.”
It was yet more heartbreak for De Pasquale and Team 18, just four weeks after losing Bathurst on the last lap.
De Pasquale, though, was proud of the efforts, despite again leaving a race track with a feeling of emptiness.
"We've got a really good bunch of people. Obviously there wasn't much really said or needed to be said about obviously what went down there,” De Pasquale said of Bathurst
“Everyone sort of knew what we did and what we could have achieved and were able to sort of push that aside.
"Obviously, it still hurts and I still lose sleep over it now, but we're able to sort of put that aside, obviously, to focus on the days that we have and race the best we can.
"That's what we come here to do. Obviously, we're putting our best foot forward, every day, and it's been a really good couple months racing.
"We had some fast race cars, some good results. So yeah, I'm proud of everyone.”
