A personal best Reid Park qualifying (P8) for Jimmy Golding in the #31 Nulon Racing Camaro has highlighted what was otherwise a difficult day for Nulon Racing on day two of the Townsville 500.
While Golding was sixth fastest in qualifying before going on to claim P8 in the Top Ten Shootout, his teammate Tim Slade was forced to start this afternoon’s race 16 from the rear of the grid after a steering issue derailed his qualifying efforts in the #23 Nulon Racing Camaro.
Across the afternoon’s 250km race, both entries put in a solid showing for the majority before a late race tangle between the two cars thwarted any chance of advancing for either Nulon Racing Camaro, with the pair ultimately finishing 18th (Slade) and 20th (Golding).
“That was a disappointing end to the day for us, especially after such a strong qualifying performance for the #31,” Nulon Racing Director of Engineering, Geoff Slater, said.
“The #23 too made some good progress, but unfortunately the issue from qualifying saw Tim have to start from the rear of the grid, so he had his work cut out for him.
“Under the late safety car with 19 laps to go, we opted to gamble with fresh rears on both cars to see if that could help us make our way forward in the final laps, but unfortunately a tangle cost us any potential of moving forward.
“It has been a hard day to swallow, but tomorrow is a new day and we are already hard at work making sure we can move on from today and put our best foot forward tomorrow.”
While lamenting the contact, Golding remains positive ahead of tomorrow’s final 250km race.
“It was a good qualifying for me, finishing P6 and then qualifying P8 in the top ten shootout, so that was solid. Unfortunately for Tim, he had a few power steering issues, so he had to start at the back of the grid for the race,” Golding explained.
“In the race I was struggling honestly, I couldn’t keep the rear tyres on it, and I ended up back racing with Tim who had done a good job to come up through the field. We had a bit of a tangle at the end there, which was unfortunate, but we will come back and do a better job tomorrow.”
“Jimmy is being awfully nice to me, considering I just ran into him!” Slade said.
“It was a tough day. We had some steering issues in qualifying and then I thought we were going not too badly in the race, moving forwards early; but we also had a similar issue to Jimmy where we were just struggling with tyre life.
“We ended up together there on track and I am sorry to Jimmy and the team for that – I didn’t execute a pass and bumped into him, and that is obviously not what you want, to be running into your teammate.
“We have plenty of information to go through tonight and hopefully we can improve the cars a bit for tomorrow so they can look after the tyres, and we can have a better day.”
Tomorrow’s third and final day of the Townsville 500 will host qualifying (10.00am), a top ten shootout (12.00pm) and race 17 (2.40pm). 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
