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Reynolds finally breaks through at Bathurst 1000

David Reynolds (top centre) and co-driver Luke Youlden celebrate their win on the Bathurst podium.

David Reynolds (top centre) and co-driver Luke Youlden celebrate their win on the Bathurst podium. Photo: AAP

Finally, Supercars joker David Reynolds has had the last laugh at Mount Panorama.

Five years after going agonisingly close, Reynolds claimed his maiden Bathurst 1000 win in atrocious conditions on Sunday.

The 32-year-old got his hands on the Peter Brock Trophy after finishing almost four seconds ahead of fellow Holden driver Scott Pye, with Ford’s Fabian Coulthard third in a wet and wild 161-lap classic.

It finally eased the pain of his 2012 Bathurst result when he finished second just 0.3 of a second behind Holden winner Jamie Whincup.

“Back then I was Queen of the Mountain. Now I am King of the Mountain,” Reynolds laughed.

In a David versus Goliath win, Reynolds – with co-driver Luke Youlden – lifted the spirits of his Erebus Motorsport team, one of the smallest in pit lane.

Erebus was forced to switch from Mercedes to Holden last season after a horror run of results.

Yet the battling outfit – owned by tattooed extrovert Betty Klimenko – now has a Bathurst win to its name after Reynolds emerged triumphant in treacherous conditions.

Reynolds finished ahead of Pye – from the cashed-up Walkinshaw Racing outfit – while Coulthard is from Ford powerhouse DJR Team Penske, owned by US motorsport giant Roger Penske.

Reynolds had been more well known for making the “shoey” celebration popular on the Supercars podium.

And he showed off the move again when he celebrated his victory that lifted him from 10th to sixth in the drivers’ standings.

Yet Reynolds fought back tears as he thanked an overwhelmed Klimenko trackside.

Reynolds snapped up a Supercars lifeline from her when he was dumped from Ford’s heavyweight Prodrive Racing at the end of 2015 despite finishing third in the series.

“I had been wanting to pay them (Erebus) back but I had not had a lot of results lately but this ticks every box,” he said.

“We are one of the smallest teams in pit lane.

“We have worked so hard for the last year and a half to get here – I owe everything to them.”

That’s as serious as Reynolds got, morphing back into the un-PC joker who gained infamy when he called an all-female Bathurst team the “P–ssy Wagon”, copping a $25,000 fine in 2015.

Co-driver Youlden won the Great Race on his 18th attempt.

It was Holden’s 32nd Bathurst win.

The stage was set for a thrilling final six-lap sprint to the finish in the wet when the sixth and final safety car emerged after Nissan’s Simona de Silvestro hit the wall in the pit straight wall.

At one stage the race resembled dodgem cars as even six-time Bathurst champion Craig Lowndes slid around with rain falling throughout the more than seven-hour epic.

Scott McLaughlin

Scott McLaughlin looks on while teammate Alexandre Premat struggles with their Ford’s engine. Photo: AAP

Record-breaking Ford driver Scott McLaughlin did not survive the horror conditions, lasting just 74 laps before engine dramas ended his Great Race.

He came crashing back to earth a day after taking pole in two minutes, 03.83 seconds – the fastest Supercars lap ever seen on the infamous street circuit.

The dreaded DNF cost McLaughlin the series lead.

Ford teammate Coulthard (2431pts) leads ahead of Whincup (2340pts) – who finished third last after engine problems – with McLaughlin (2334pts) third.

Despite the wet, 56,042 fans flocked to the track on Sunday pushing the total four day attendance to 205,693 – the second-biggest overall Bathurst crowd.

-AAP

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