PremAir Racing endured a challenging but determined Saturday at Symmons Plains Raceway, with changing weather conditions, mixed fortunes in qualifying and plenty of hard racing across Races 14 and 15 of the Supercars Championship.
The day began in damp conditions for qualifying, with light rain forcing the field onto wet tyres for the opening session. As the track rapidly improved, lap times tumbled late in Part 1, leaving both PremiAir Racing Camaros narrowly outside the Top 10 shootout for Race 14. Jaden Ojeda qualified 13th, while Declan Fraser lined up 23rd.
Conditions continued to evolve for Race 15 qualifying, with the circuit declared wet despite the rain easing before the session. Both drivers rolled out on slick tyres and adapted quickly as the pace increased dramatically compared to the earlier session. Ojeda secured a place in the Top 10 shootout after finishing ninth in Part 1 before ultimately qualifying 10th for Race 15. Fraser would again start from 23rd.
Race 14 saw both drivers make steady progress through the field in a clean and strategic 50-lap encounter. PremAir Racing executed flawless compulsory pit stops, including a lightning-fast 3.1-second stop for Fraser, helping both drivers gain valuable track position throughout the race.
Ojeda remained inside the fight for the top 10 across the closing stages and brought the #3 Camaro home in 10th place, while Fraser charged forward from deep in the field to finish 16th after another determined drive.
Race 15 proved far more dramatic. Ojeda lost ground early before recovering strongly through the opening stint, only for contact from Chaz Mostert on Lap 14 to spin the Premiair Racing Camaro to the rear of the field. Race control later handed Mostert a time penalty for the incident.
Despite the setback, Ojeda fought back hard during the second half of the race and set the fastest lap in the closing stages as darkness rolled over Symmons Plains. He crossed the line in 15th and was later elevated to 14th following a post-race penalty elsewhere in the field.
Fraser was again making strong progress through the midfield before being turned around in a late-race battle, dropping him to the back of the field. Race control confirmed there would be no further investigation into the incident, with Fraser ultimately finishing 23rd.
While the results did not fully reflect the pace shown across the day, Premiair Racing leaves Symmons Plains with valuable points, strong pit stop performances and plenty of determination heading into Sunday’s Race 16 — the final showdown of the weekend in Tasmania.
Jayden “Juice” Ojeda – #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“Saturday’s wrapped up for us here in Tasmania, and it was definitely a bit of a mixed day with some highs and lows.
Qualifying was pretty tricky with the conditions changing around. We made it through to the second part of qualifying, but probably didn’t quite maximise the second set of wets early on. It was one of those sessions where it was hard to know whether wets or slicks were the right tyres at the right time, and we ended up P13 for the first race.
From there, the team did a fantastic job with strategy and the pit stop. We were able to undercut a few cars and work our way into the top ten, which was a really positive result considering where we started.
For the second race, we started from P10, but unfortunately, I had a couple of poor starts, which put us on the back foot straight away. That’s something I need to understand better and work on ahead of tomorrow. Then we had a bit of contact with Chaz, which sent us into the dirt and to the back of the pack.
The positive was that the car’s pace was really strong all day. Massive credit to the boys and girls at PremiAir Racing. The car was super fast, and we fought our way back to P14 and set the fastest lap of the race as well.
There’s definitely a lot of potential there; we just need to put the whole package together tomorrow.”
Declan “Decca” Fraser – #777 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“It’s been a really long Saturday with two qualifying sessions and two 50-lap races, but there are definitely plenty of positives for us to take out of it. Qualifying didn’t quite go our way, and starting P23 always makes life difficult, but once we got into the races, the car’s pace was really strong.
In the first race, Hodgy and I worked really well together, and we were able to move forward to P16, which gave us a lot of confidence heading into the second one on the super soft tyre. The car felt mega this afternoon, and we made up a lot of ground with some really strong passes through the field.
Unfortunately, we got tagged while running around P15, and there wasn’t much I could really do about it. It’s frustrating when something out of your control ends the run, but that’s racing sometimes.
The big positive is that we know the pace is there. If we can put it together in qualifying tomorrow and start further up the field, we’ll give ourselves a much better shot at fighting where we feel we belong.”
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