After having one of the fastest cars in the first practice session on Thursday morning, co-driver Luke Youlden crashed it heavily in the next session, and, despite a heroic effort by the Erebus crew to rebuild it, it wasn't the car it was.

Having been on the front row of the grid for the past two years, Reynolds would start the race he won in 2017 from 22nd.

The first 65 laps were disastrous with Reynolds and Youlden not even being able to stay on the lead lap.

But from there Reynolds showed his metal and his last 94 of the treacherous Mount Panorama circuit were nothing short of sensational.

Lap after lap he drove the car beyond its limits, not only getting back on the lead lap, but putting himself into eight with 24 laps to go when everybody had to stop once more for fuel.

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Reynolds' team called him on lap 141 and he re-entered 13th.

He worked his was to sixth when a safety car came out with 10 to go, putting him in touch with the leaders for an all-out sprint to the flag.

He moved to fifth and was lapping as fast as the four cars in front of him, but was seven seconds off the lead.

But there was one last twist in the tail of this incredible race when one of the Nissans crashed on the fourth last lap, bringing out another safety car to leave just a one-lap dash to the end.

Under immense pressure from Fabian Coulthard, Reynolds kept his nerve to record and an amazing top-five result.

Down pit lane, Brad Jones lamented another Bathurst 1000 without a victory.

The team boss of Albury-based Supercar team, Brad Jones Racing, had a tough day at the office with Nick Percat finishing the 161-lap event in 18^th.

His son Macca came home 21^st, whilst BJR's other runner, Tim Slade, didn't last the first lap, tangling with James Courtney in the run out of the cutting and hitting the wall hard, ending his race.

"We weren't running around the top-five pace from day one and couldn't tune the cars over the week to get them there, we were playing catch up the whole time," Jones said.

"It's disappointing as we are usually pretty competitive here. I'm proud of the way the team went about it, they never gave up, but it wasn't our time."

Scott McLaughlin claimed his first Bathurst 1000 victory, holding off Shane Van Gisbergen and Courtney.