Race Report Sydney SuperNights

IMPROVEMENT SATURDAY FOR GOLDING AND SLADE, BUT PREMIAIR NULON RACING HUNGRY FOR MORE TOMORROW

PremiAir Nulon Racing have showed strong improvement today after a difficult Sydney SuperNight Friday to see its entries only just miss out on a Top Ten Shootout berth before coming home with solid mid-pack finishes after having run as high as the top ten throughout the 51-lap race. 

Golding and Slade started the night race in ambient temperatures of just 13 degrees from P12 and P13 on the grid respectively, with both drivers having a strong start off the line and over the opening laps, moving to P10 and P12 respectively. 

Both entries were on a two-stop strategy, with Slade the first of the pair to pit on lap 14 from P12, while Golding followed on the next lap from P9.  The second and final stops for each came on lap 31 (Slade, was P13) and lap 36 (Golding, who had control of the field at that point as the field worked through their stops). 

This set up a final run to the finish, with both Slade and Golding pushing on from P11 and P17 respectively, going on to cross the line P15 and P14 with Golding passing Slade on the last lap on fresher tyres. 

Naturally, while able to see the positives, the team is far from satisfied with this performance despite the fact it is an undeniable improvement over yesterday’s results and all eyes are firmly trained on making sure Sunday is a better day. 

The third and final day of the Sydney SuperNight (Sunday 21 July) will host qualifying (12.05pm), a Top Ten Shootout (1.40pm) and another race, with this one getting underway at 4.03pm. For event information, visit www.supercars.com.au

QUOTEBOARD: SYDNEY SUPERNIGHT – SATURDAY 20 JULY 2024

Tim Slade – #23 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro

“My day at Sydney Motorsport Park was average, that probably sums it up – it definitely could have been worse; in practice yesterday, we had decent pace at the start on the older tyre but nothing at the end on the new tyre so it was good to at least get that a little bit better today, but obviously we still want more. Then in the race it was fairly uneventful, I just struggled with a little bit of pace and tyre life and was 15th in the end. Like always we will just work hard tonight and see if we can be better tomorrow. The cars have no major damage which is always good and it is one positive to finish the day with straight cars so we can concentrate more on the set-up stuff for tomorrow.” 

Ludo Lacroix – PremiAir Nulon Racing Competition Director and #23 race engineer

“It was a busy day. better than yesterday, today on 23 we tried to have an aggressive strategy in the race, and it worked with 10 laps to go basically and then we were running out of tyres at the end, so, that is life. We need to be just a bit better tomorrow in terms of life and try to qualify a couple of spots better, that is where we are. There were a lot of cars in front of us as well, so it is not easy.”

Jimmy Golding – #31 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro

“My day was not too bad. It started off not too bad in qualifying based off how it went last night where we struggled a lot, so we turned the car around well for that and managed to get P12 which wasn’t amazing, but it was a good improvement. Then we headed into the race – we got off to a pretty good start and made up a couple of spots and then I was just trying to manage the rears pretty much the whole way through the race and didn’t quite have it for those other cars around us and dropped back a few; but I had a good battle with my mate Tim here at the end, I had fresher tyres at the end so was able to pass him. Today was nothing special, but we will work hard tonight and make it special tomorrow.”

Romy Mayer – Race Engineer for the #31 PremiAir Nulon Racing Camaro

“To finish two spots down from where we started is definitely not ideal, once a couple of cars stopped very early and undercut us the only option for us was a different strategy – going a bit longer in the middle stint and then with the tyre advantage in the last stint we could catch a couple of cars in the end. We probably still didn’t maximise probably and hopefully will be more pacey tomorrow and look better in the race.”

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