For a time during this afternoon’s Race 31 of the Supercars Championship at Sandown International Raceway, it looked like PremiAir Racing might have been in the frame for their second podium result at this historic circuit.
Alas, it was not to be, with the #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro of Jimmy Golding instead crossing the line P20 after a number of things did not fall the way of he and his team across the 81-lap, 250km race.
Golding had started the race in P13, getting off to a solid start and climbing to P10 over the opening five laps as the rain started to fall, with the team making a stellar strategy call to bring him in first for wet tyres on lap 6.
That call saw him vault up the field to third place by the time the rest of the field (lap 9) had completed their own wet tyre changes and saw him staunchly holding position while under attack from Cam Waters and Broc Feeney.
Golding was able to hold Feeny off until lap 24, before on the next lap heavy door-to-door contact with Waters would see the #31 off-track with a punctured left front tyre. With the contact occurring on the last corner, he headed straight to the lane where the PremiAir Racing crew scrambled to be ready to receive him.
Not only was it a cruel blow in the scheme of things, but it also came at a very awkward time, with the rain having passed but the track still too wet at that point (lap 26) to take on slicks.
The team replaced the left side tyres and checked the others, while taking on a full fuel load, seeing Golding return to the track in P22 and a lap down, hoping for a safety car and knowing he would soon have to return to the lane for slick tyres.
That change came on lap 38, and again the #31 was dealt with some back luck – held up by three other cars in the lane and losing more valuable time.
Never ones to give up, the team and Golding pushed on, fighting to get back on the lead lap and leading the field by up to five seconds over 27 laps before a small mistake saw the leader get by with five laps to go – at that stage, Golding was tasked with bringing the car home safely over the remaining laps, crossing the line in P20.
Ojeda meanwhile had started the race from P16 and confronted with a wet pit box on slick tyres, like yesterday fell back to find his rhythm with a race focus on staying out of trouble, banking miles, and picking off a few along the way as the opportunity arose.
His first stop came as part of a double-stack with the #31 from P22, and the second soon after Golding’s slicks stop, from P17. From there he put in a considered drive to bring the #62 home P18.
One final round remains in the 2025 Supercars Championship season, the Adelaide Grand Final across November 27-30. For event information, visit www.supercars.com
For exclusive team insights and updates as well as live session coverage as the weekend unfolds, be sure to keep a close eye on the PremiAir Racing WhatsApp Channel, which is proudly presented by Air & Allied Sales. To join, visit https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEGGiJ2kNFlJu5eeo1H
QUOTEBOARD: SANDOWN 500, SUNDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2025
Ludo Lacroix – Competition Director, PremiAir Racing
“A day that could have been a bit better. Didn’t qualify too bad which was a positive in that way, but could have been a bit better still, it was not an easy qualifying conditions/weather etc.
“In the race (for #31) we did the right call and pitted early for wets, we were running P3 and strong, but still missing something here in the rain, funnily enough we were strong at Bathurst, but here missing something in the rain – a couple of tenth here and there. But when you are running in the top five you are good. But then all of a sudden, we had a clash with Cam Waters and that made a flat – and just on the last turn on top of it which meant we weren’t fully focused and ready to jump on the car and change tyres. Which we did. And then that put us a bit down, one lap down, so then we basically had to work our way back out of a lap down. We did that, we had a bit more fuel so we pitted very quickly when they pitted so we could get ahead of them, and we stayed ahead of the race – five second ahead – for basically 25-27 laps. Then we had a little mistake with five laps to go, and we lost staying on the lead lap as the leader overtook us, and from there for the last five laps we just drove home safely. Pace wise on the dry I think we can say we were happy, on the wet there is something to look at, it is not like we didn’t go good at Bathurst, so something was not perfect in my opinion for the wets.
“For Ojeda, he was very unlucky, he started on a wet patch so his pit box was wet on the start/finish line so when he got on the gas on the slicks he had nowhere to go, he couldn’t go anywhere, so he was last after the first lap, and that is probably where he raced most of the race. Nothing happened really, just with the weather we tried to get out of the weather. It was his first time in that car on the wets, and he did a solid job. He had some good pace at the end. We did have to save a bit of fuel at the end on his car, we probably missed a couple of kgs, we were burning more fuel today than we were yesterday, which put us a little on the back foot on the last stint on the slicks, as we had to watch for fuel and it is not easy to drive fast and watch for fuel.
“So, no big crashes, again some pace but nothing to show for it, so we will go to the last race and try and do something a bit better again.”
Jayden Ojeda – #62 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“We started better in qualifying, sort of felt like we missed out on getting into the ten in all honesty, we were pretty strong all the way through but probably mis-timed the time to go to the new tyre, expecting the rain to come a little earlier. But if that is what we are disappointed bout in qualifying session and finishing up 16th that is a good feeling.
“In the race we missed out on the start, starting in the middle of a big puddle which meant the start was always going to be difficult compared to those around me. We struggled a little bit with the pace in the wet and then lost a bit of race time because of that, double stacking, and by the time we were on the dry tyre the car felt good, but we were out of position a little bit.”
Jimmy Golding – #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro
That was a tough one. We qualified P13 and had a great race car, but the puncture early on really put us on the back foot. From there it was all about salvaging what we could. The crew did an awesome job all day, and I’m proud of how we hung in and kept pushing. Not the result we wanted, but we’ll reset and aim to finish the season on a high in Adelaide in two weeks.
Stay in the loop with PremiAir Racing all weekend long! Get live race coverage and exclusive team updates via our WhatsApp Channel, proudly powered by Air & Allied Sales.
👉 Join now: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEGGiJ2kNFlJu5eeo1H
For more information on PremiAir 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.x.com/premiairracing