A top ten finish has highlighted Nulon Racing’s Sandown 500 experience today, with the #23 Nulon Racing Camaro of Tim Slade and Jonathon Webb crossing the line P9 in the hotly anticipated enduro this afternoon.
Both Nulon Racing Camaros put in a good showing across the Sunday afternoon race which finished under time certain conditions following a delayed start for fence repairs required after a Super2 crash and a number of safety car periods.
While Slade and Webb finished P9, two positions up from their starting position of P11, the #31 Nulon Racing Camaro of Jimmy Golding and Dylan O’Keeffe came home in P15 – a solid result after having started the race in P18 and being forced to recover from an early race excursion when O’Keeffe was pushed off the track.
Alongside strong car pace, the entries were particularly benefited by fantastic pit stops executed throughout the race for both the #23 and #31 by the Nulon Racing crew.
“There are definitely a lot of positives to take away from what has been a solid day,” Nulon Racing Team Manager, Stephen Robertson, said.
“A top ten for the #23 is a strong result and in the #31, there was great pace, but an unfortunate early incident cost us some time and then the late safety car hurt us further, putting that entry a lap down.
“Overall, though, in both cars we had good car pace, especially at the end, and both cars held onto the tyres which was very encouraging.
“While the results maybe don’t show the true performance at a glance, the entire team and all of our drivers did a great job, and the pit stops where absolutely phenomenal by the whole team.”
For Slade and Webb in the #23 Nulon Racing Camaro, it was a mostly trouble-free outing at the popular Victorian venue.
“It was a pretty uneventful race really for us. Webby did an awesome job and drove faultless all weekend. He had quite good speed and passed some cars and raced smart,” Slade said.
“The car was there or thereabouts, and while we didn’t have any more speed to finish any higher up at the end, we were quicker than the guys behind. It was a good job by the team, and we look forward to Bathurst now.”
“It was a generally pretty good weekend for us – the car rolled out of the box quite well, and Tim and I have been reasonably comfortable, with just a bit of fine-tuning as you would expect,” Webb added.
“For my run in the start of the race I just wanted to keep it clean and give it back to Tim in one piece, which I was able to do, so I was really happy with that. The team did an awesome job and I just want to say a massive thanks to everyone for having me this weekend. I am really looking forward to Bathurst.”
In the #23 Nulon Racing Camaro of Golding and O’Keeffe, some early race troubles saw the results not necessarily marry up with the entry’s potential.
“It wasn’t the best start for us today as we were already on the back-foot with qualifying, but Dylan had a bit of a crack off and had a few good battles,” Golding said.
“It wasn’t an easy race for us, and a few things didn’t go our way which put us back a lap and had us chasing our tail, but we did make a change to the car throughout the race that really brought it on a lot, so that is a really good thing to take into Bathurst.
“At the back end of the race, we had really good pace compared to a lot of the cars out there, so while unfortunately the results didn’t come, there are a lot of positives, and we are all looking forward to taking those into Bathurst.”
For O’Keeffe, it was his first Sandown 500 experience.
“I loved teaming up with Jimmy and learnt a lot heading into Bathurst,” O’Keeffe said.
“A few things didn’t go my way at the start of my stint, but not everything is going to go your way, so you just have to learn and push forward.
“I handed over to Jimmy on the back foot, but he did a remarkable job to get it back up a few spots from where we started, and we had great pace at the end.”
Nulon Racing will next be on-track for the Bathurst 1000 across October 5-8. For event information, visit www.supercars.com.au
For more information on 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
