JAMES Golding’s dreams of delivering PremiAir Racing its maiden Supercars podium were dashed by an incident with Broc Feeney, but he assures there are no hard feelings.
Golding was quick all weekend at Mount Panorama and particularly shone on Sunday, securing fourth on the grid with a splendid Top 10 Shootout lap.
From there, he launched into second by the opening run up Mountain Straight, following Chaz Mostert as both Triple Eight cars again made poor starts.
But trouble ensued later in the lap, with Feeney making a move up the inside at the Chase and the #31 Nulon Camaro being forced off-track.
Feeney was issued a five-second penalty but the damage was done for Golding, tumbling to eighth.
CHAOS 😱#RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/8zvq1b0vT1
— Supercars (@supercars) February 25, 2024
Golding eventually recovered to finish fifth and was relaxed post-race about the Lap 1 incident.
“I had an awesome start and got right behind Chaz and was settling in for what I was hoping was going to be an awesome race,” he said.
“Unfortunately we got caught up in a bit of mischief with Broc down at the Chase and dropped all the way back to eighth, but those things happen – everyone is trying as hard as they can, that’s racing.
“We just pressed on and were able to claw our way back again, the car had really good speed and we ended up finishing in fifth position which is a solid start to the championship for us.”
With Feeney, Mostert and race winner Will Brown all in a league of their own, Golding noted fourth might have been the best possible result in any case.
He is now 10th in the championship and looking to be a contender once more at next month’s Albert Park sprint round.
“Of course we want to be consistently up the front this year and that is what we have been working on, but it doesn’t happen overnight especially when you have made a lot of changes internally,” Golding said.
“It will take some time, but we have put a lot of good changes in place and I am looking forward to the future for sure.”
