PREMIAIR Racing teammates Tim Slade and James Golding have lamented a late-race clash which stunted their chances of a charging finish in Townsville.
Having both made a third pitstop when the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 69 of 88, the duo were battling over 17th position when they tangled at Turn 11 on Lap 77.
Slade took responsibility for the incident, having lost control under braking while attempting an overtake, with resulting contact pitching Golding’s #31 airborne.
Slade ultimately finished 18th, two spots ahead of Golding.
“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,” said Slade.
“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.”
Golding had qualified in the top 10 but battled in race trim.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
