After a brilliant start to race two which saw Jimmy Golding fire through to P2 from P4, PremiAir Nulon Racing has brought home its first top 5 race result of the 2024 season at the Bathurst 500 with the #31 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro crossing the line in 5th position today.
Golding’s P5 represents a great comeback for the driver and team, after he was escorted off the track while in P2 by Broc Feeney on lap one, with Feeney given a five second penalty for the incident.
Golding was sent off the track at The Chase as a result. He was able to resume in P8, from where he and the team mounted a considered recovery program to work back to P5 with impressive driving, great pit stops, and solid strategy calls across the remaining 38 laps to move up into P5 on lap 31.
Like yesterday, Tim Slade was again caught up in someone else’s incident off the start, being forced to avoid crashing cars off which significantly held up the #23 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro.
Navigating that incident saw him drop to P21 after starting P17 – a position he would reclaim by the end of the race following a determined drive served well by slick pit stops and strategy calls.
“It was a big day for PremiAir Nulon Racing and what a start from Jimmy in particular, he was right in there in P2, and things were looking really great on that opening lap for the #31,” PremiAir Nulon Racing Team Manager, Stephen Robertson, said.
“Unfortunately, that got taken away with the contact from Feeney – for which he was served a penalty and also apologised which we appreciate – but we put our heads down and did the work and were able to claw it back to P5 by the end of the race which we are very proud of.
“Tim also got caught up in some drama again not of his own making off the start, but once again he did a good job to recover and do what he could to claw back the positions.
“The #23 was struggling for speed all weekend and it had some issues with turn, but Tim did a really good job to do what he could and hopefully he can have a much better showing at the next round.”
Golding hopes the P5 result today, which sees him 10th in the championship points, marks the beginning of a season at the pointy end.
“It was a pretty awesome day for us in the #31. We qualified into the Top Ten Shootout and managed top put the car on P4,” Golding said.
“I had an awesome start and got right behind Chaz (Mostert) and was settling in for what I was hoping was going to be an awesome race.
“Unfortunately we got caught up in a bit of mischief with Broc down at the Chase and dropped all the way back to eighth, but those things happen – everyone is trying as hard as they can, that’s racing.
“We just pressed on and were able to claw our way back again, the car had really good speed and we ended up finishing in fifth position which is a solid start to the championship for us.
“Of course we want to be consistently up the front this year and that is what we have been working on, but it doesn’t happen overnight especially when you have made a lot of changes internally – it will take some time, but we have put a lot of good changes in place and I am looking forward to the future for sure.
“We are sitting P10 in the championship now and I can’t wait to get to round two.”
“Yesterday was a bit difficult but happy that we got a good result today, the car had good pace and we managed to get a couple of spots back at the end and top five is a pretty good start to the season,” Golding’s engineer Romy Mayer added.
Slade – who has been reunited with previous engineer Mirko De Rosa this year – was despondent after a challenging weekend.
“We (the #23 and the #31) were not too far apart when we started the weekend, we were pretty similar (setup wise) but yeah, we were nowhere really and were battling a lack of speed and a lack of turn all weekend,” Slade said.
“We need to find the answer to that. It is awesome to be working with Mirko again though.”
PremiAir Nulon Racing is now eighth on the Teams’ Championship standings and will next be on-track with the 2024 Supercars Championship for the 2024 Melbourne SuperSprint, part of the Melbourne Grand Prix, across March 21-24.
The PremiAir Nulon Racing Top Fuel Dragster will next be on-track for the National Drag Racing Championship (NDRC) Top Fuel title fight at Dragway at The Bend across April 6 and 7, as it will not be making the trip across the Nullarbor for the upcoming Westernationals due to logistical conflicts.
“We are currently third in the championship and there are still four rounds left to run after the Westernats – Dragway at The Bend, two at Sydney, and then the Willowbank Raceway finale – so while it is shame we won’t make it to Perth for March 2 and 3, it is certainly not out of the question to peg the field back at the remaining events,” Xiberras said.
For more information on PremiAir Nulon Racing, please visit www.premiairracing.com or follow the team on its social media platforms at www.facebook.com/PremiAirRacing/, www.instagram.com/premiair_racing/, www.linkedin.com/company/premiairracing/ and www.twitter.com/premiairracing
