Darwin Friday Debrief

PremiAir Nulon Racing driver Jimmy Golding secured the provisional pole on day one of the Darwin Triple Crown and is now the only driver with the ability to secure ‘the Crown’ this weekend. 

The Triple Crown has only been claimed twice before in the event’s history, and if he is to claim it this weekend, Golding will need to back up today’s qualifying result with victory in both of this weekend’s races aboard the #31 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro. 

It was undoubtedly a strong day for Golding and the #31, who was also second quickest in the opening 60-minute practice session. 

Making things even sweeter for the team today is the fact that both of its entries have made it through to tomorrow’s Top Ten Shootout, with Tim Slade setting the eighth-quickest qualifying time today in the #23 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro.

Slade’s qualifying performance was a very welcome result following a difficult practice session earlier in the day which saw him lay down only 16 laps across the hour-long session, as numerous adjustments were made on the #23. 

PremiAir Nulon Racing will return to the track at Hidden Valley Raceway tomorrow (Saturday, 15 June) for a 30-minute practice two at 9.35 am, followed by the Top Ten Shootout at 11.35 am, and then the first of two races for the weekend, which will kick off at 3.10 pm. Sunday 16 June, will then host a qualifying session (10.25 am), Top Ten Shootout (11.35 am) and the second race of the weekend, kicking off at 3.10 pm (all times local). For event information, visit www.supercars.com.au

QUOTEBOARD: DARWIN TRIPLE CROWN – FRIDAY 14 JUNE, 2024

Jimmy Golding – #31 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro

“It has been an awesome day, a little unexpected, I didn’t really know how we were going to fare. Obviously, it is pretty important to roll off the truck well, considering we only have the one one-hour practice before qualifying, and it was pretty comfortable out of the gate. We made a few changes to get the car in the window, and once it was there, it was pretty hooked up. We tried to do a tidy lap, and we managed to do that on two sets with P1 on both sets, so it couldn’t have gone better. I am really stoked for the whole team, everyone has put a lot of work in, so it is good to pay them back for it. Obviously, the job isn’t finished yet – I wish there wasn’t a shootout now,” he laughed, “but it is a good way to be heading into tomorrow and we have a lot of confidence. It is a great milestone for the team.  

Tim Slade – #23 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro

“It was good to be able to salvage things in qualifying. I am happy that we were able to be there after the practice session, and obviously it is a good day for the team with Jimmy being quickest of that session, he had a really solid day. Hopefully we can move up a little in the shootout and have a strong race.”

Ludo Lacroix – PremiAir Nulon Racing Competition Director

“Having both in the top ten is always a good day for us. For Tim, in practice, sometimes I want too much out of the car, and I want to give the driver more than it should be doing. We tried a couple of things that are technically difficult to put on the car, and it took more time than planned. That is a fine balancing act – do we make the car better, or do we do more laps and prepare for qualifying? Sometimes you are going to be lucky and win because you find something new and fresh that works better, and you use it for qualifying, and other times you don’t find anything and you have spent a lot of time trying to put it together and you have done less laps, so that is not so good and that is what happened this morning. Timmy was doing the right thing and waiting for us to finish what we were trying to achieve, and we just over-tried. I need to balance out the work and the timing it takes sometimes for things to happen, and it is not always certain, sometimes you can change a spring in two minutes and with something else it takes 10 and all of a sudden ten minutes is a lot and that is what happened today.”

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