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Rogers discounts youngster's slip-up

05 Mar 2015
His rising star crashed out in race two at the Clipsal 500, but Garry Rogersbelieves the accident says nothing about James Golding's talent.
3 mins by James Pavey
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Woodstock Highlights - Dunlop Series Race 2

James Golding's crash at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide isn't indicative of what the rising star is capable of, insists GRM team owner Garry Rogers.

The 19-year old embarked on his maiden campaign of the V8 Supercars Dunlop Series last weekend, coming home 19th in the first race but crashing out in race two after becoming unsettled at the Senna Chicane and spearing into the wall.

The Commodore has been assessed at the workshop and there's abigworkload for the team,with damage to the whole left rear cornerof the car, as well as the diff housing, fuel tank, oil tank, left front suspension, rear rails, watt's linkage and rear windscreen. The goal is to repair the car this week, as the turnaround on the Championship cars from next week's Grand Prix to Tasmania is a tight one.

"What happened [on Saturday] was unfortunate, but those things do happen," Rogers told v8supercars.com.au.

"At the risk of sounding like old father Tom, when you've been around for as long as I have been and you've seen those things happen, you have a bit of internal knowledge that you're not just going to go along and it's all just going to be smooth sailing ... because it won't be that way."

With a reputation of fostering burgeoning V8 Supercars talent, the long-time team owner likened Golding to another driver he helped developed, who had a tough initiation into V8 Supercars but has carved out a successful career in the category.

"We introduced Garth Tander into the category and ... I didn't like it when he crashed but he was always going to be fast enough to win and to me, that was important. I'm not saying James is like Garth Tander, but I'm saying he's got that same want-to-win attitude.

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"This is his first race and there's a lot of things that will come and go but he was driving really well ... from time to time he might muck it up, but it's certainly not indicative of what I believe he will be able to do as we roll along."

Golding - affectionately known as 'Bieber' within the team - balances his Dunlop Series driving duties while working as a race mechanic on the Volvos of Scott McLaughlin and David Wall.

The Dandenong South-based squad hasn't entered the second-tier V8 Supercars category since running Leanne Tander in 2001, but Golding posedas the perfect opportunity to return to the breeding ground of young V8 Supercar talent.

"We've contemplated over the years being in the Devlopment Series but never really got to the stage of committing to it," he told v8supercars.com.au.

"When we brought James on [in the team] I had no intention of doing this. He's been here for two years now and I knew he'd been racing go-karts and I knew he'd had reasonable success, and then he got involved in Formula Ford.

"He's young, he's enthusiastic, he's vibrant and he wants to do things."

The Dunlop Series' nextstop on the calendar is the Perth SuperSpint, running from May 1-3.

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