Border Supercars star David Reynolds to tackle Bathurst 1000 with Will Brown

That's the way Albury-born Supercars star David Reynolds describes how quickly things can go horribly wrong at Bathurst's daunting Mount Panorama race track, where the nation's biggest motorsport event is held each year.

Reynolds and long term co-driver Luke Youlden won the race in 2017 and he was in a winning position in the dying stages of the 2018 race, only to be overcome by physical exhaustion.

Last year it all came undone during the week's second practice period on Thursday afternoon.

Twenty minutes into the session, Youlden hit the wall at Sulman Park at over 200km/h, ripping the front right suspension out of the car, resigning it to the garage for the rest of the day.

The team took all night to repair it, but Reynolds was on the back foot from that point on.

"It's just so unsettling when something like that happens," Reynolds said.

"We were one of the fastest cars out there straight of the box - which is exactly what you want - then the thing is in pieces, you lose so much track time compared to everyone else and you're behind the eight ball all week from there."

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Many have said that on the Sunday, Reynolds drove the race of his life to climb from 21st to finish fifth in a car that wasn't up to the task of being in the top five.

"We could have been on the podium but for a few things that didn't fall our way during the day - but then everyone in pit lane has those stories, that's what makes it such a hard race to win," he said.

Reynolds has had a poor 2020 season by his lofty standards and sits 11th in the championship.

He laments the fact that the disruption of COVID-19 has meant that his engineer, Al McVean, has not been able to attend races.

"Al has tuned in by video but it's not the same," Reynolds said.

"You pick up so much as to what's going on by being in the garage, so I've definitely missed having his influence during this year

"But thankfully he will be at Bathurst, so it's going to be fantastic to have him back. It's hard to describe what a difference it will make."

On the question of the effects of COVID arrangements for this season, Reynolds is curious to see how it will impact this year's great race.

"It could greatly affect the Melbourne-based teams," he said.

"We haven't been home for months and it's just not the same preparing your cars on the road, so there could be some reliability factors this year that you don't normally see.

"The teams have been managing as best they can, but it's nothing like going back home, going through the whole car with a fine-tooth comb and rebuilding everything.

"I think it's going to show up at Bathurst because it's such a long week and a long race."

Reynolds will be paired up with young upcoming Super2 driver Will Brown this year after running with Youlden for the past four years.

Brown drove with Reynolds' Erebus teammate Anton de Pasquale last year and did an outstanding job, finishing as one of the fastest co-drivers for the weekend.

"It's good that Will be driving in the Super2 race over the weekend, as a lot of the co-drivers haven't done a lot of driving this year, so he will be able to dial himself in quickly which will be a big advantage for us," Reynolds said.

"As long as our car is good and I do my job as best I can, his job is quite easy - turn up, not crash the car and race as hard as he can.

"Being a co-driver in one of the best teams is all you can hope for when you're that young - he's going to be great to work with, I can't wait."

Practice starts on Thursday morning, with the 1000-kilometre race on Sunday.