The fourth and final race of this weekend’s Melbourne SuperSprint at the Australian Grand Prix has seen Tim Slade bring home his third top ten result of the weekend in the #23 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro, while team-mate Jimmy Golding was just behind in P11 aboard the #31 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro.
With 14 uninterrupted laps at their disposal this morning, smart driving and good car speed saw both drivers able to make the most of their time on-track to advance through the field from their starting positions of P15 (Golding) and P17 (Slade).
“It was a very good race from Sladey, even with not the best start he went through and got into the 10. He definitely was strong and drove very well around people with more speed while not getting into the wrong melee, waiting for the right opportunity; he was very good today and this weekend at not getting in the wrong fights,” PremiAir Nulon Racing Competition Director, Ludo Lacroix, said.
“It was a very solid race from Jimmy too, even though he probably didn’t have the tyre life we would have liked so mid-way through the race started to struggle a bit more than we thought, but he was quite strong early on. We made a lot of changes in setup and there are lots of things to look at – we tried a couple of things at the end to see what it would do and there are some positives for sure.
“We will have a good debrief and try and go to New Zealand with something a bit closer to what we need.”
Making Slade’s P10 result even more impressive is the fact that he actually had to recover from P20 off the start due to a clutch issue when the flag dropped.
“The clutch actually went on me at the start, so I had a poor start and then was on the outside for what felt like the first half of the track and got steam-trained, but I kept my cool and the car felt pretty decent, so I just tried to attack as much as I could while being smart about it,” Slade said.
“Some people ran into each other like in every race and took each other off and we passed some people; we had some fairly decent pace, and I think it was good in that we tried something a bit different in that race set-up wise based on the car balance we have had all weekend.
“It was good to learn in that race with both cars, I think that will help us moving forward. (The result) is pretty good considering where we have been recently, and this weekend overall has been good for me personally as things make sense again.
“We might not have been exactly where we wanted to be, especially in qualifying, but it was nice to come away with three top tens and a good base to build on for the rest of the year. I am loving working with Mirko again too, that was his doing for the race car, and I am enjoying it again which is good.”
Golding was also pleased with his day on-track.
“It was another decent day for us here, we kept improving throughout the weekend and it was good to finish with a solid result with both cars around the back of the ten today,” Golding said.
“We threw a few things at the car today and learnt a fair bit, which is good heading into the next round.
“We still have a lot to work on obviously, but I really enjoyed today, and it was pretty awesome racing out there with lots of passing and stuff, which is what you want as a driver.”
This weekend’s results see PremiAir Nulon Racing move up one spot in the Team’s Championship to eighth position, ahead of the next round at the Taupo Super 400 across April 19-21. For event information and schedules, visit www.supercars.com.au
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
