The Nulon Racing team has sped through to finish its Perth SuperSprint weekend on a high this afternoon, with both the #23 Nulon Racing Camaro of Tim Slade and the #31 Nulon Racing Camaro of Jimmy Golding showing impressive pace and race craft across today’s two 42-lap outings.
In race eight, Golding drove through the field from P22 to finish in P11 and set the fastest lap of the race (55.9463), while Slade – who started the race P10 – craftily worked around a broken gear selector mount to ensure he could take the checkered flag after having earlier been running well inside the top ten.
In race nine, Slade started P6, maintaining position before stopping early and going on to finish P8 amongst a heavily competitive top ten, while Golding again passed a large number of cars to finish P11 after starting P19 on a long-run strategy.
While qualifying was undeniably difficult for the #31, the pace for both Golding’s car and Slade’s was undeniable and plainly shown on the race track, with Golding even suggesting the cars were perhaps the fastest they have ever been today.
Also turning heads was the Nulon Racing pit crew, who pulled off a series of fast stops across the weekend, including the second fastest of the race this afternoon for Golding.
“It was a big day today, with two qualifying sessions and two races,” Nulon Racing Team Principal, Matt Cook, said.
“Like all the teams, we learnt a lot from Friday and Saturday and implemented that into today, although it was a lot cooler this morning, so the conditions were quite a bit different and so not everything from Saturday’s qualifying transitioned over to today’s sessions.
“Tim did a fantastic job in the back-to-back qualifying to be P10 for race 8 and P6 for race 9, while for Jimmy we had some struggles unfortunately, ending up P22 and P19.
“Tim has done a solid job all day. When you are at the pointy end it makes it really hard to pass, but he kept his pace and maintained his position and we were really impressed and happy about that.
“In the first race he unfortunately had to work around a broken gear selector mount which was stopping him from changing gears, but he was able to find a way to continue and pick up some points, so hats off to him for not giving up. Then in the second race, he did a fantastic job for P8.
“While not having the best qualifying today, Jimmy had really good race pace, moving up the grid to P11 in both races and even setting the fastest lap of the race in race eight, and we are excited for the speed that the car does have. Hopefully moving forward, we can qualify a little better, and that way we aren’t making life so hard for ourselves.
“Overall, the day is full of positives with good speed, big moves up the field by Jimmy and a strong top ten result for Tim, and we also come away with the second fastest pit stop in the last race there, so we are really happy about that. The team is really evolving and moving forward, and we can’t wait for the next one.”
Slade said he was happy with a solid day in the #23 Nulon Racing Camaro, despite the race eight issues with the gear selector mount.
“Obviously it was unfortunate what happened in the first race today, but overall, it was the kind of weekend that I wanted – something to build upon,” Slade said.
“In the afternoon’s race we had a good start, and the car was really good – we had definitely improved it between the first and the second race.
“I was in behind David Reynolds at the start, and he started to struggle a bit and I was trying to give my engineer, Rhys (Lenegan) as much information as possible. The car was good so I thought maybe I could get Reynolds with a lap or two, but we ultimately decided to stop early. In hindsight it might have been worth running a bit longer and stopping later in the race and having a crack at it, but that is all good, you live and you learn.
“I am happy – it was really good to have Rhys engineering the car this weekend, he fit in really well and he and I got along really well. It was enjoyable to work with him and I am happy overall with the weekend. Hopefully we can use this as a base now to keep on progressing in the upcoming races.”
For Golding, the race pace in the #31 Nulon Racing Camaro was exciting.
“Both races were decent for us today and we had good race pace,” Golding said.
“I struggled a bit with qualifying this weekend but other than that there are a lot of positives to take away.
“I would say in particular we had probably the best race pace we have had all year, perhaps maybe even ever (with PremiAir Racing), so there is a lot of positives to take away.
“We learnt a lot of things with the car this weekend, made a lot of ground up, and kept consistent finishes with two P11 results and a P15 yesterday. I am looking forward to the next round and hopefully we can keep moving forward.”
Nulon Racing will next be on-track with the Supercars Championship across May 19-21, for the Tasmania SuperSprint. For event information, visit www.supercars.com.au
Before they head over to the Apple Isle however, the team will be on its way to Sydney for the penultimate round of the Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship on May 5 and 6, with Team Principal and two-time Top Fuel Champion, Peter Xiberras, currently third in the championship points. For event information, visit www.topfuelchampionship.com.au
For more information on Nulon Racing, please visit www.premiairracing.sailorstudio.net 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
