Premiair Racing has wrapped up the opening day of the NTI Townsville 500 with a solid top-10 result for Jayden Ojeda and a career-best Supercars qualifying performance for teammate Declan Fraser.
The day began with the weekend’s only 45-minute practice session, where both crews worked through an extensive setup programme on the #31 and #777 Camaros. A late red flag brought the session to an early conclusion, preventing Fraser from completing his planned qualifying simulation, with Ojeda finishing 12th and Fraser 16th.
Qualifying provided plenty of positives for the team. Ojeda progressed comfortably through to Part 2 after finishing seventh in the opening session as the leading Chevrolet Camaro. He went on to record a 1:13.442 to secure ninth on the grid for Race 20.
Fraser narrowly missed joining his teammate in Part 2, finishing 11th by just 0.015 seconds. While heartbreaking at the time, the result marked the best qualifying performance of his Supercars career.
Starting from Row 5, Ojeda delivered a composed drive in the 100km opener, maintaining strong pace throughout the race before holding off repeated attacks from Broc Feeney in the closing laps to secure ninth place.
Fraser showed encouraging speed during the opening stint and spent much of the early race inside the top 10 before a challenging middle phase dropped him down the order. Despite the setback, he continued to fight to the finish, crossing the line in 21st.
The Premiair Racing pit crew also delivered under pressure, executing two clean compulsory pit stops to keep both Camaros in the fight.
The team now turns its attention to Day 2 in Townsville, looking to build on the encouraging signs from Friday and continue pushing towards stronger results across the remainder of the weekend.
QUOTEBOARD: ITM TOWNSVILLE 500 – FRIDAY 10 JULY 2026
Jayden Ojeda – #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“That’s day one and Race 1 wrapped up here in Townsville. We started P9 and finished P9, which probably sounds like a pretty straightforward race, but there was actually a fair bit going on.
We decided to go long with the strategy, and the last stint was a good battle with Brock. It was great to hold him off and bring it home in ninth for another top-10 finish and some really valuable points for our championship.
It was also a really positive turnaround from where we felt we started the day. We made some good improvements to the car as the day went on, so there are definitely positives to take from that.
We’ll go through the data tonight, reset and come back ready to have another crack tomorrow.”
Declan Fraser – #777 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“That’s Friday wrapped up after a big day of practice, qualifying and racing.
We started the day strongly and came away with our best qualifying result of the year, missing out on the top 10 by just one hundredth of a second. Qualifying has been an area we’ve been working hard on, so it was really positive to make a solid step forward there.
The race was a bit tougher. We got a good start, moved up into 10th and ran there for most of the first stint, but we struggled a little with our pace towards the end of the stints and that saw us drop back through the field.
There’s plenty for us to look at overnight. Our race pace has been a real strength this year, so we need to understand what we were missing today and get on top of it. We’ll work through everything tonight, come back tomorrow and focus on putting together another strong qualifying session and building from there.”
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