Reynolds defiant amid Supercars future questions, generation shift

David Reynolds may not have registered it then, but as James Courtney, Will Davison and Nick Percat embraced their rivals before last year’s Adelaide finale, Supercars was set for a new elder statesman.

Yesterday, it was thrown in his face: you’re in for season 17.

“Is it really 17 seasons? Geez, that's a lot,” Reynolds laughed to Supercars.com.

The simple facts are, with the exits of Courtney, Davison and Percat, Reynolds is now the most experienced driver on the Supercars grid, with 490 races and 222 rounds to his name.

Where Courtney and Percat retired, Davison was effectively moved on as Dick Johnson Racing signed rising star Rylan Gray. It proved no driver is safe.

But last October, amid a tidal wave of young talent, Team 18 exercised its option on Reynolds for 2026, just weeks after the 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner turned 40.

Just days later, Reynolds was a mere overlap on Matt Payne at The Cutting away from a remarkable Bathurst victory, which would have been his second, co-driver Lee Holdsworth’s second, and Team 18’s first.

In a heartbeat, Reynolds had responded in a big way.

All told, in a perfect world, could he keep going full-time for at least another five years?

"I'd love to, but honestly, you never know what's around the corner. You never know how everyone views your performance,” Reynolds, a father of two, explained.

“Sure, you've got an idea of your own performance. You might think you're doing a good job, but a lot of people might think you're doing an average job.”

It’s an open secret that General Motors is keen to add more star power to its ranks. Of its eight 2026 drivers, just three have won a Supercars race. Crucially, Reynolds is one of them.

Importantly, Reynolds offers charisma and marketability like few peers. Think the Gold Coast 'body' race suit. The man versus machine races with Matt Shirvington. Even benign media spots produce comedy gold. For Team 18, it's a big tick.

However, the best way a driver can shore up their future is by getting results. That's a reality Reynolds knows all too well — but in a sport that requires all elements to sing from the same hymn sheet, it isn’t that simple.

“Obviously, I'm a full-time driver this year. Looking to next year, if I get results, that will take care of itself,” said Reynolds, who claimed a surprise pole in Townsville last July.

“But at the end of the day, you need the whole team to work in unison to get results. It's never just the driver's fault. It's never just the engineer's fault. It's never just the mechanic's fault.

“You need the whole collective of the team working together to get results. In some instances that's good, because it shares a responsibility amongst all the team members.

"But it's also bad that it doesn't solely rely on just your own personal performance, because sometimes you can turn up and be in the best headspace and the best mindset, but drive the shittiest car in the world and still finish 17th.

“Sometimes I wish I just played a sport like tennis or golf, where it was predominantly down to your own performance. Man, it’d be so much easier. It’s a very, very funny sport we take part in.

“If I can race at the front all the time, I think I'll be fine. But there's a lot of young kids coming through. They are quite unknown in their ability and performance."

A lot has changed since Reynolds, then all of 22, debuted in the 2007 enduros. The cars have gone through a series of generation changes, with the latest — Gen3 — seemingly opening the door to younger drivers.

It shows — the Round 1 grid in Sydney will be the youngest the sport has ever seen.

“When I first got into the sport, the cars were very difficult. They were very detailed and you needed to be methodical to drive fast, but it's kind of changed these days,” Reynolds said.

“When I first joined the category, the cars had no feel and you couldn't tell if you were locking a brake. The lap times were much, much slower back when I first started compared to they are now, because we've got more grip, more feel and more feedback.

“So, for a young kid coming in, they actually probably get on the pace a bit quicker than we did back in the day. It's just a different time, a different era.”

So, if Reynolds is to defy the next gen and race on beyond 2026, he has a simple plan to make his presence felt.

"My absolute first priority is to get in The Finals,” he said.

“The Finals spurs everyone on a bit harder and makes everyone work even closer together. I’d love to be there. Last year, Kai Allen scraped into The Finals by, like, half a point, and ended up coming fourth in the championship.

“We need to start better. Our second half of the year was so much better than the first. It just seemed like there was more consistency. A lot of things changed and we understood the car a lot more.

“The tyre and the steering rack changed last year and it took us a little bit longer to figure out how I needed to drive it. Part of the problem is when Anton [De Pasquale, teammate] was going well, we started copying his set-up, which didn't work on my car or my style or whatnot.

"People believe it's driver to driver, but I don't think so. I mean, I'd like to think I know, I’ve only been doing it for 16 seasons [laughs].”

After a quiet off-season headlined by "heaps of family time," Reynolds is ready and raring to go for season No. 17.

However, after 16 seasons, has it gotten any easier? Reynolds replied: “No, you’ve just got to understand it. At the end of the day, it's, it's a team sport. Making a car go fast doesn't happen by itself.

“The cars are set like more sensitive than ever. All the processes and systems you have, have to be perfect.

"You move things by a millimetre here and a millimetre there, it makes a big difference. It’s a bit of a headache at times, but when you get it right, it makes everything way more enjoyable.”

With Team 18 entering 2026 as General Motors’ homologation team, there will be pressure on the team — which has one win in 11 standalone seasons — to keep Chevrolet at the top of the sport.

So, does that put pressure on Reynolds?

“Not at all,” he said.

"Regardless of who sponsors the car, it's business as usual.

“Simply, if you're not at the front, you're not doing your job. That doesn't change at all, no matter what team I've driven for, it's always been the same.

“You're a competitive person by nature and you want to win and you want to be the fastest, and that's never changed since I've been five years old.”

Reynolds’ last win came at one of the sport’s toughest battlegrounds, the Gold Coast, in 2023. He is winless with Team 18, but it hasn’t been without trying.

To make Finals — and go deep into Finals — drivers need to be winning, or at the very least, bringing home trophies. Reynolds is well aware of that.

If there was ever a single answer to sum up his mindset heading into 2026, knowing he has to make the post-season, it’s when he was asked if he can win a race this year.

“Absolutely we can.”

Who knows — season No. 17 could be best of the lot.