16th
23RD
1:48.0218
7th
1:48.1118
9th
Day one of the Melbourne Super Sprint as part of the Australian Grand Prix has been somewhat of a rollercoaster for PremiAir Racing.
The day started off very well for the #31 and #62 PremiAir Racing Camaros of Jimmy Golding and Richie Stanaway.
In the opening practice, Golding topped the timing totem early and held that position for a large portion of the session, before focusing on long race runs during the final stage while others laid down fast final laps, finishing up P11. In those final moments, Stanaway also held the top spot, before finishing second quickest.
In practice two, Golding again went to the top of the timesheets early, this time maintaining that position until the flags flew to close out the session, while Stanaway was 14th quickest.
Back-to-back qualifying sessions followed for today’s race four and tomorrow’s race five, with Stanaway walking away with a pair of P7 results while Golding locked down starting positions of P9 and P11.
These results saw the team heading into the 19 lap race full of confidence, and the opening portion of the race did nothing to quell that enthusiasm.
It was a strong start for both entries, with Stanaway jumping two spots to P5 while Golding maintained P9 before soon gaining a position to move into P8.
Just a few laps in, the race was fully alight with cars colliding left, right and centre as the field battled hard around the fast flowing circuit.
Amongst this chaos, the #3 entry found itself in the gravel, triggering a safety car on lap 7 while Stanaway was P7 and Golding P8.
The race was resumed with 7 laps left to run, and again the entire field was swinging for the fences.
Unfortunately, a very painful lap for the PremiAir Racing team was just around the corner, fast unravelling all their hopes.
First, Golding found the tyre bundle on the chicane at the back of the circuit, which seems to have been misplaced following contact from another entry.
The heavy contact with the bundle saw the left front corner of the #31 taken out while Golding was P10, forcing him to the pits for repairs.
Just seconds later on the same lap, Stanaway became the meat in a supercar sandwich, with the #62 coming off the worst from this battle to be sent from P7 to P20 – from where he persevered to recover to P16. Golding meanwhile would return to the track from the pit lane with five minutes left on the clock to claim P23.
The Melbourne SuperSprint action will continue Friday (14 March) with race 5 (2.50pm) before Saturday (15 March) hosts qualifying for races 6 and 7 (back-to-back from 9.05) ahead of race 6 at 5.40pm. Sunday (16 March) will then conclude the Supercars proceedings with race 7 at 10.25am (all times AEDT). For event information, visit www.supercars.com
QUOTEBOARD: MELBOURNE SUPER SPRINT – Thursday 13 March, 2025
Ludo Lacroix – Competition Director, PremiAir Racing
“We hit the track with cars which were probably capable of the top seven and we ended up with a top seven finish on the #62’s side. I feel Jimmy had the same sort of talent in his car also but in qualifying it just didn’t work quite as well. We qualified the #62 in P7 twice and car #31 in P9 and P11, which I would say was half acceptable. The racing didn’t go our way, we actually started very well on #62 and also #31, but then the restart after the safety car was a nightmare for us and then there was a crash where Richie was pushed out and lost a lot of room and a lot of places, and Jimmy was also unlucky to touch a tyre bundle and destroy a front tyre and a front splitter which meant it was all over for him. Richie soldiered on from P20 back to P16 and that was all we could really do. It was not a very good race really. We maybe could have been a bit more conservative on the set up also, but at this stage we are still learning with these guys, definitely with Richie as we learn what he needs, so there is a bit more work to do there.”
Richie Stanaway – #62 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“We had a solid qualifying, although I was a little disappointed to not be further up in the second qualifying session as we improved half a second between the two qualifiers. It still put us in p7 which is solid; but we are looking for a bit more than that. I felt pretty in control of it in the race, I did get passed by a couple of cars but felt like I was saving a bit more tyre and so would have been able to come back at them at the end, but then after the safety car I got taken out by someone and that was that. The start was good, we jumped a couple off the start and I think we had enough for a podium in the car, but it all unravelled pretty quickly. We are starting from the same spot tomorrow, so we will try again.”
Jimmy Golding – #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“It was a bit of a roller coaster day for us today – we had a few highs early on being fastest in practice; we didn’t quite nail it in qualifying but we were still in the mix there starting off P9 for the race. We were trucking along all right and had a reasonable start, up a couple of positions. After the restart there were some pretty hectic battles going on, then I was following Ryan Wood through the fast chicane at the back, and – without having yet looked at the footage – I think he has clipped the tyre bundle and as it has come back and landed, how it has landed is right in front of my car, I have to take a look and see if I was already on the wrong trajectory or if it has bounced out further than where it was, but obviously once you turn into the corner at high speed you are committed to a line, and that is what it was – so I hit the bundle and damaged the front of the car. We came into the pits and the guys fixed it and thanks to their hard work we got back out to collect some points. It is a new day tomorrow – we have four races here so we will forget that one pretty quick.”
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.twitter.com/premiairracing
