The Albury export cut ties with Erebus and signed with Kelly Grove Racing on what is believed to be a multi-year deal.

It also meant a change back to the Ford brand and the chance to race a championship-winning Mustang.

"It is nice to be back at the track and I'm feeling optimistic about this year." Reynolds said ahead of yesterday's first practice session for the season at Bathurst.

"We had a good test a Winton last week.

"It's not so much the move from Commodore to Mustang but from team to team where the differences are.

"Everybody does everything just a bit differently and settling into those nuances is the challenge.

"Everything you touch, feel all your driver inputs - its different But I have done this before so that helps, it's about patience and working through things bit by bit and not getting ahead of yourself. It will take a few rounds no doubt."

A key for Reynolds to get on the pace quickly is that his engineer from Erebus, Al McVean, has come across to Kelly Grove.

The pair won multiple races together at Erebus, including the 2017 Bathurst 1000.

McVean is highly-regarded in pit lane as one of the best in the business and Reynolds places a lot of value on the partnership.

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"One of the hardest things about changing teams, is getting some sort of baseline on performance to start with," Reynolds said.

"Having Al in garage will help me get on the pace a lot quicker. We work well together; he understands what I need the car to do and communication is easy - it's a big advantage.

"He's very good at his job, very smart, very calm.

"Dennis, the head mechanic has also come across and it was vital that they made move too, I wouldn't have done it (the move) without them."

Reynolds is not expecting miracles at this weekend's season opener at Bathurst.

Kelly Grove's first ran Mustangs last year after a five-season stint with Nissan Altimas.

Andre Heimgartner was the team's best performer at 14th in the championship, only a handful of points from being in the top ten and will be Reynolds' teammate this year.

"I'm looking forward to working with Andre again, we've known each other for a long time and were teammates at Tickford a few years ago," Reynolds said.

"It's hard to set goals when you start in a new team - you always want to win, but being realistic, this is a learning experience at the moment.

"Bathurst is not the sort of place to get ahead of yourself; the price is too high around here as its fast and windy so any mistake is nasty.

"Having been here a lot of times though, I hope to make good progress over the weekend and a least be competitive."

There are two 250-kilometres races on Saturday and Sunday to start the 2021 season.

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