PremiAir Racing has rounded out their Ipswich Super 440 experience with a double top ten result in the third and final race of the weekend.
Jimmy Golding and the #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro started the 63-lap race from 7th on the grid after making it into the Top Ten Shootout with the eighth quickest time in the second part of the knock-out qualifying.
Richie Stanaway, meanwhile just missed out on making the Shootout by 0.002s, lining up P11 in the #62 PremiAir Racing Camaro.
It was a hectic start to the race with rain falling early, and the team made the call to hold out until the first of two Compulsory Pit Stops to make the decision on whether to move to wet tyres.
This ultimately paid off, as by that time, wets were no longer required, with the rain dissipating and the track drying out – however the previous laps on slicks in wet conditions certainly required all the concentration possible from both drivers, who held on as best they could.
Across the race, Golding was 10th as the CPS train began, running as high as P2 before diving in on lap 24 for his pit stop, resuming in P14. Stanaway, meanwhile, had been 9th when the first stops commenced, also running as high as P2 before pitting the lap after Golding, resuming in P17. Both stops went to plan, seeing the pair back on track quickly with fuel and four new tyres on-board.
Not long after a safety car was called for a stranded competitor, with the entire field taking advantage of the chance to conduct a CPS in neutralised conditions.
Both Golding and Stanaway came to the lane for two flawless back to back stops, but even so, did feel some disadvantage compared to three other cars in the field who were able to complete both of their CPSs under the safety car.
The restart came with 29 laps to go, with Golding in 11th and Stanaway 12th, soon moving to 10th and 11th respectively, working together to try and ensure a double ten – an endeavour in which they were ultimately successful, despite Golding battling with battery issues in the #31 in the final five laps.
While they crossed the line 10th and 11th on the road, this equalled a finishing result of 9th (Golding) and 10th (Stanaway), by virtue of a competitor ahead of them on the road having a 15 second penalty on their head.
With this final round of the Sprint Cup now complete, PremiAir Racing and the rest of the Supercars field turns its attention to the enduro season, which will commence with The Bend 500 over 12-14 September at The Bend Motorsport Park. For full event information, visit www.supercars.com
QUOTEBOARD: IPSWICH SUPER 440 – SUNDAY 10 AUGUST, 2025
Ludo Lacroix – Competition Director, PremiAir Racing
“The good positive thing is that we were strong in quali and we kept that strength through the race which was good. We were a little unlucky with that safety car around lap 30 as we had pitted six laps earlier, which unfortunately meant we did one stop under green and one under safety car, the one under safety car doesn’t cost us compared to the others, but with three people who hadn’t stopped before the first SC they did two stops under SC so they made 17 seconds free of charge and that is why they ended up at the front. They don’t rob us, but they gained three spots of waiting, waiting and waiting and being lucky that a safety car happened in that time. If not, I think if that hadn’t happened we would have been fifth and sixth or seventh which would have been better.
“But look, I am not going to complain today, I think the car is around the seven, eight, nine pace so that is good, and it is positive for the boys. We executed some very good pit stops to be fair, in the top five on both cars; it is good to have very good pit stops and we had four good stops together so that is another positive for the boys because they work hard and people thing we don’t work, but everyone works. This is one area we need to work better, and I think with today’s four pit stops, none of them were wrong, none of them were short/long/etc, that is a positive we have to carry into the enduros.
“And then when it comes to the driving of the car, the set up in the car to the liking of the driver, we are not so far away, and trusting what we know, from our friend (888), and try to drive the car better…that seems to be slowly migrating, it is a little too late always in the weekend – we always seem to be on the back foot on Friday and we come a bit better later on, so we need now to try to make that happen earlier. But now, the enduro races are on Sunday so we need to be good on Sunday (laughs) – hopefully that is going to happen!
“There are some very positive elements there, to run in the top ten is never easy. To complain about being nine and ten because three people gained from pit stop under safety car is a positive somewhere, it means we are able to be six, seven, eight on good pace and a good pit stop, so that is happy days today.”
Richie Stanaway – #62 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“It has been a pretty solid weekend for us, we had a couple of top ten finishes, it has been a nice little turn of form compared to the last few rounds.
“I feel like we learnt a lot more than we have been lately, so I think we have really figured out how to get some speed out of this car which is something to take into this last part of the season. I am looking forward to building some momentum up, and it is nice to have a good couple of results at our home track.”
Jimmy Golding – #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“It was a bit warm in my office today – the cool suit stopped working and then started having power outages, so I shut my helmet off just to save as much power as possible to make sure we could finish the race, so it got a bit toasty there. But not a bad day overall. To get in the top ten shootout this morning was cool and then make up another spot once we were in there was nice and to get up another row.
“We settled into the race, there was a bit of rain to start, I probably didn’t push as hard as I needed to to hold position there, so I was a little too conservative there and a couple of cars got me, but settled into the race nicely and then the safety car mid-way or towards the end bunched the field back up and there were a few battles going on but I couldn’t really capitalise too much towards the end.
“We ended up finishing P9 but the safety car ended up giving three cars some luck, putting them in front of us where they weren’t before that point. But P9 and if we had been P6 or P7 we would have been pretty stoked with that, but still regardless to keep the car in the ten and also have Richie up there as well is pretty good.”
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