A tricky Sunday in Darwin for Nulon Racing has seen the team first come away with P6 (Jimmy Golding) and P11 (Tim Slade), before the third and final race of the weekend saw both Golding and Slade forced to manage difficulties throughout the race.
The day started off with back-to-back qualifying sessions for races 14 and 15, with Golding (#31 Nulon Racing Camaro) qualifying P6 and P16 across the two sessions while Slade (#23 Nulon Racing Camaro) locked down P16 and P22.
In race one, a solid race saw Golding maintain P6 while Slade marched through to P11, with speedy pit stops of particular aid to the progress of the Nulon Camaros.
In race two, a small mistake in a bunched-up field early saw Golding sent to the back of the field, from where he and the team worked hard to advance before having to settle for P20. Slade meanwhile had a solid race, but some hip and shoulder with another competitor sent him wide at one point and did see him have to drive around some damage to bring the car home while battling aging tyres, finishing P18.
“It was a massive day today, with two qualifying sessions back to back and the two races. We qualified quite well in the first session and that set us up well for a good race 14, and then moved into qualifying for the final race where unfortunately we weren’t as quick as we have been,” Team Principal, Matt Cook, said.
“We were very happy with the first race today. Jimmy started 6th and finished 6th, which was great, and Tim marched through the field from P16 to P11, so we are really happy with that result. Plus, our pit stops were amazing, and our cars were straight, so that was really great.
“In the last race of the weekend we unfortunately had a little bit of bad luck, with Jimmy making a mistake early amidst a bunched up field which hurt him a lot, and while we ran a three stop strategy to try and give him the best tyres we could for the last stint to hopefully leap frog some positions, we had to settle for P20.
“Tim meanwhile had a bit of a hip and shoulder with another competitor that sent him wide and put him down a few spots, so although he gained a few spots, he also lost a few, so we ended up where we did in P18.
“As always though there are positives to take away and already we are getting ready for the next round in Townsville.”
Golding explained that he feels plenty of improvements have been made this weekend for his #31 Nulon Racing Camaro.
“The last race was a bit of a tricky one for me, I didn’t quite hang on there and had a bit of an incident off track and managed to salvage it back to P20, so that wasn’t good, but I had an awesome first race, finishing p6 and qualifying there as well,” Golding said.
“There are lots of positives to take away from the round, we have improved the car a lot since we rolled it off the truck and I am looking forward to Townsville.”
Slade is also looking forward to Townsville after a challenging day.
“It was a pretty average day for us. There was a lot more potential yesterday, we had good speed then, it was just unfortunately that with the way the race panned out for us yesterday we had to carry home some damage then,” Slade said.
“Today we didn’t have the pace in qualifying, and it is always hard when you are starting at the back. The first race was okay, and we moved forward from 16th to P11. Then in the last race, I thought the car was a little better at the start, but after stopping early it didn’t hold onto its tyres. It was pretty disappointing to be honest and now we just look forward to Townsville.”
Nulon Racing will next be on-track with the Supercars Championship for the Townsville 500 over July 7-9. 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
