Supercars qualifying day for the AirTouch 500 at The Bend has decidedly not gone the way of PremiAir Racing, with the team struggling with steering and balance issues on the #62 and #31 PremiAir Racing Camaros respectively, leaving them to start tomorrow’s 500km race from 19th and 22nd on the grid.
“Yeah, it’s been a pretty tough day for us here at The Bend,” commented Stanaway. We’ve been chasing a mechanical gremlin since the end of Practice 4, and unfortunately, we just haven’t been able to get on top of it today.
“It’s definitely hindered our pace and made things harder than they should have been. From what we can tell, it looks to be an issue with the steering, and potentially the brakes as well, so it hasn’t been the smoothest run.
“That said, the crew has been working flat out to diagnose it, and we’ll throw everything at getting it fixed overnight. The good thing is tomorrow is a 500km race, which gives us plenty of time and opportunity to fight forward. If we can get on top of this, I’m confident we can show a much stronger pace and push up the order.”
Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup’s Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaro will start from pole position following the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout.
The Premiair team’s time on track on Saturday kicked off with a co-drivers only Practice Four, with Nash Morris laying down the 18th quickest time in the #62 he is sharing with Richie Stanaway, while David Russell was 19th quickest in Jimmy Golding’s #31.
The fifth and final practice session of the weekend soon followed, and while it was an all-drivers session, the team took the opportunity to have main drivers Golding and Stanaway at the wheel for the entirety in preparation for the upcoming qualifying.
It was in this session that steering issues that had niggled the #62 in P4 became a real problem, with the car pulling to the side during braking.
Stanaway would end up stuck in the garage for quite some time while the crew chased a dislodged grub screw in the steering column, returning to the track with 20 minutes on the clock and managing a lap time that was 15th on the timing totem.
The #31 meanwhile had been struggling with balance all day and this continued for Golding in P5, seeing him ultimately log the 25th quickest time amidst a raft of set-up changes.
After P5 the team took the extra steps of replacing the steering rack completely in the #62, but unfortunately, those steering issues would continue to undermine Stanaway’s attempts at qualifying, seeing him finish out the session in P19. Golding meanwhile continued to struggle with balance in the #31 despite the team working through a number of potential fixes in both P5 and before and during the qualifying session, finishing out the session in P22.
While definitely not where the team wanted to be heading into Sunday’s enduro, 500km on the docket allows plenty of time for a fight back, and the team is wholly dedicated to turning today’s results around come race day – which will kick off with a warm-up at 9.30am followed by the race start at 1.45pm – all times local.
Starting grid: 2025 AirTouch 500 at The Bend
1/ Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup (#88 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet)
2/ Cameron Hill/Cameron McLeod (#4 Supaglass Chevrolet)
3/ Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood (#38 Shell V-Power Ford)
4/ Cam Waters/Mark Winterbottom (#6 Monster Energy Ford)
5/ Thomas Randle/James Moffat (#55 Castrol Ford)
6/ Matt Payne/Garth Tander (#19 Penrite Ford)
7/ Anton De Pasquale/Harri Jones (#18 DEWALT Chevrolet)
8/ Cooper Murray/Jobe Stewart (#99 Erebus Chevrolet)
9/ Ryan Wood/Jayden Ojeda (#2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Ford)
10/ Chaz Mostert/Fabian Coulthard (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Ford)*
11/ Nick Percat/Tim Slade (#10 Bendix Chevrolet)
12/ David Reynolds/Lee Holdsworth (#20 TRADIE Energy Chevrolet)
13/ Jack Le Brocq/Jarrod Hughes (#9 Tyrepower Chevrolet)
14/ Andre Heimgartner/Declan Fraser (#8 R&J Batteries Chevrolet)
15/ Jaxon Evans/Jack Smith (#12 SCT Logistics Chevrolet)
16/ Will Brown/Scott Pye (#1 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet)
17/ James Courtney/Jack Perkins (#7 Snowy River Caravans Ford)
18/ Aaron Cameron/Zak Best (#3 Adventure Industries Ford)
19/ Richie Stanaway/Nash Morris (#62 PremiAir Chevrolet)
20/ Macauley Jones/Jordan Boys (#96 Pizza Hut Chevrolet)
21/ Will Davison/Tony D’Alberto (#17 Shell V-Power Ford)
22/ James Golding/David Russell (#31 PremiAir Chevrolet)
23/ Kai Allen/Dale Wood (#26 Penrite Ford)
24/ Cameron Crick/Aaron Seton (#35 Sherrin Rentals Chevrolet)
25/ Bryce Fullwood/Brad Vaughan (#14 AlphaTheta Chevrolet)
26/ Craig Lowndes/Zach Bates (#888 Supercheap Auto Chevrolet)
27/ Lochie Dalton/Rylan Gray #(#5 Viva Leisure Ford)
- Denotes two-place grid penalty
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