Push to beat heat behind Reynolds' weight gain solution

David Reynolds has revealed that he has tried to gain weight in order to combat hot Supercars races.

Reynolds, who ended Thursday practice second fastest at the VAILO Adelaide 500, has often been affected by hot conditions in the car.

In a bid to beat the heat, the 2017 Bathurst winner installed a sauna at his Melbourne home to train for hot conditions.

Reynolds was infamously “cactus” following a Gold Coast race in 2022, before he described an Adelaide race later that year as “torturous."

The Team 18 driver and his rivals will have to be up to the task on the weekend, with hot conditions forecast for Saturday’s first 250km race.

“I still struggle in the heat,” Reynolds told media on Thursday.

“It’s going to be 38 or 36 degrees on Saturday, and it’s plus-25 for us in the car, so it’s really, really hot conditions.

"There’s things we can do, ice bath, cool suit, make sure all your cooling systems work in the car. The last couple of rounds, our helmet fan has been a bit on the fritz, and we’ve got new helmet fans.

Reynolds poked fun at an image of the 2022 Gold Coast race used by Supercars.com in an article, joking: “They took the piss out of me, Supercars, they put up this article about how hot it’s going to be.

“It’s [an image of] me, dying from heat, and they just had to pick on me, of course.

“You bastards, I’ll get you back for that one."

Regardless, Reynolds knows what he’s in for, given cabin temperatures can be up to 25 degrees hotter than ambient temperatures.

“It’s going to be tough, but we all know it. It’s what we sign up for,” the 38-year-old said.

“In 2022, there was a really hot race and my car was 72 degrees for two hours and I got out and cried like a little school girl. It was shocking… it was a tortuous day for me"

Supercars will return on Friday with Practice 2 at 1:05pm local time/1:35pm AEDT, followed by Boost Mobile Qualifying at 5:30pm/6:00pm AEDT.