PremiAir Racing has endured a difficult day on the streets of Surfers Paradise for the final day of the 2025 Gold Coast 500 today, with plenty of potential in the PremiAir Racing Camaros ultimately unable to be realised in the final 250km race of the weekend.
Like Saturday, Sunday opened with qualifying for the entire Supercars grid, with a two-part format deciding which of the runners would face off in the Top Ten Shootout later that morning.
In that qualifying, a kerb strike in his final flying lap saw Jimmy Golding unable to proceed to part two in the #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro, making for a Race 29 starting position of P22 – a result far from representative of the capability of the car and its driver.
For Richie Stanaway in the #62 PremiAir Racing Camaro, it was a more successful start to the day, with the Kiwi racer making it through to part two (15th quickest) before pulling out a big lap in the dying seconds of the session to claim a coveted place in the Top Ten Shootout with the sixth quickest time.
In the Shootout, things didn’t go his way however, with a lock up on the approach to turn one seeing his time deleted, relegating him to P10 on the grid – something incredibly disappointing for the team as it was felt that there was strong potential for the #62 to advance up the grid during the Shootout.
Even so, it was still a solid starting position for the afternoon’s race around the concrete jungle of the Gold Coast street circuit for Stanaway, and with both the #62 and #31 showing good pace despite their qualifying experiences, they headed into the race with optimism on both sides of the garage.
The race began with a literal cloud overhead with wet weather threatening, however despite the belief that the rain would hit in the final stages, it wouldn’t come until the time came to pack up the garages following the podium celebrations.
Both PremiAir Racing Camaros got off to a good start, with Stanaway settling into P10 while Golding was working his way through from P22 to be P14 by lap ten – where he remained until pitting on lap 15.
It was here that Golding encountered trouble, with the stop for four tyres and fuel hindered significantly by a delay on the right rear, seeing him lose 10 seconds to drop him all the way back to P22. Stanaway meanwhile had been holding on to P10 until lap 18, before diving into the pits on lap 19 from P11 for four tyres and fuel in a clean stop, resuming P19.
When lap 33 rolled around, all the teams had completed their first compulsory pit stops of the race and the PremiAir Racing Camaros were running P13 for Stanaway and P19 for Golding, who was recovering well from the earlier setback as everyone continued to anxiously watch the skies ahead.
A solid effort from both drivers saw Stanaway climb back to P10 by lap 37 and Golding to P18. However, the #62 Camaro was later handed a five-second penalty for an overtake that Driving Standards weren’t happy with.
As more stops unfolded, both Stanaway and Golding continued their climb through the field, before their own second round of stops came calling with the #62 stopping on lap 57 from P7 and the #31 on lap 59 from P8 in a pair of clean stops. For #31, the crew adjusted the rear of the car one-turn lower to help balance the car for the run home, rejoining P19, while the #62 took on tyres and fuel while also serving that five second penalty to rejoin P17.
As the lap counter continued to tick down, Stanaway was fighting hard in a number of battles, at times challenging for P10, however trouble would soon strike with 10 to go when James Courtney and Anton De Pasquale would tangle, sending Courtney into the fence.
As Courtney tried to recover, contact was made with the #62, and while Stanaway was able to continue on for some laps in P11, ultimately that contact would lead to suspension failure in the final laps, stopping him from being able to finish the race – a disappointing outcome with PremiAir Racing Competition Director Ludo Lacroix believing that the #62 had the potential to finish in the top seven today.
Golding meanwhile was in P19 when the safety car board was brought out, and the team made a bold call to dive into the lane, allowing him to rejoin on fresher tyres and ready to charge over the final laps . He would ultimately cross the line P17 in the #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro – a decent recovery from the issues of earlier in the race, but still far from what could have been with Golding pointing to the speed and strong balance of the #31.
Following the race, Car #31 was issued a post-race pit lane penalty after being deemed to have not entered the pit lane at the end of the Safety Car period while one lap down on the leader. This decision resulted in Jimmy being classified P18 in the final Race 29 standings.
PremiAir Racing now has two events left of the 2025 Supercars season ahead – the penultimate round at Sandown International Raceway across November 14-16, and the Adelaide Grand Final on November 27-30. For event information, visit www.supercars.com
QUOTEBOARD: GOLD COAST 500, SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2025
Ludo Lacroix – Competition Director, PremiAir Racing
“It has been an interesting day, it was a very good job on #62 overall, I am very pleased for Richie, qualified solid, made a little mistake in the shootout but that can happen on this type of track. The race was very solid, unfortunately got penalised for an overtake earlier on in the race, five seconds, and in that top ten you don’t want that as it pushes you back to 14/15 and you have to follow people that are not necessarily as fast as you. He would have genuinely been 6/7, which would have been exceptional for him, in my opinion. Then there was an accident and with Courtney is in the fence and he has hit Courtney and that has damaged something by the look of it – a couple of laps later after the back chicane, which is the big chicane where you jump in the air, the suspension has collapsed. So unfortunately, that was a DNF for him, he went straight to the escape road, he didn’t crash or anything, just went straight. On Jimmy’s side on the #31 it was not a great day, there were a couple of good things during the race but not enough to be happy, let’s face it. He started with a set up a little too far away and it stayed too far away, so there is not a lot to talk about for Jimmy today.”
Jimmy Golding – #31 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“It was some tough racing out there today. We really pushed hard from the very first part, and although a few things didn’t quite go our way, the pace in the car was really strong, which is awesome to see. There were a few moments that didn’t roll our way, but overall, there’s a lot of positives we can take from the weekend. The crew worked hard to give me a fast, well-balanced car, and I’m really proud of the effort everyone put in. We learned a lot that we can carry into the next one, and that gives me a lot of confidence heading into Sandown. We’ll reset, take the lessons from this weekend, and come out swinging for the final round. Thanks as always to everyone for their support — I can’t wait to see everyone at Sandown to finish the season strong.”
Richie Stanaway – #62 PremiAir Racing Camaro
“We were having a pretty solid run today sitting in the mix and managing things well strategy-wise. Unfortunately, with just a few laps to go, we had a suspension failure that ended our race early. It is a disappointing way to finish after the effort from everyone across the weekend. The team gave me a fast car and worked hard all day, and I really appreciate that. We’ll regroup, reset, come back at Sandown.”
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