Luckless Stanaway at a loss amid incidents, penalties
Richie Stanaway at a loss amid incidents, penalties
PremiAir driver undone by incidents in both Saturday races
Stanaway 22nd, DNF with James Golding 16th, 15th
Saturday in Darwin was a bitter pill to swallow for Richie Stanaway and PremiAir Racing, with the Kiwi suffering double disaster.
The 2023 Bathurst winner ended Saturday with results of 22nd and DNF, with only the luckless Jaxon Evans — who is out for the weekend — worse off.
After colliding with Evans on the first lap in Race 17, Stanaway’s first race unravelled when he came off worst in a Turn 5 clash with Nick Percat and David Reynolds following the Safety Car restart.
Stanaway returned to the race to claim points for 22nd. However, despite being seven laps down, Stanaway was hit with 30 seconds of penalties over two Turn 5 incidents.
Come Race 18, and starting out of 10th, Stanaway was sent into a spin by countryman Matt Payne at Turn 1. The #62 PremiAir Camaro was forced into the garage with a steering issue. The team first changed a power steering pump, but a suspected piston or steering rack issue ended his day.
All told, Stanaway dropped to 22nd in points, some 10 positions worse off than this time last year when he was with Penrite Racing.
PremiAir's tough day was compounded by headlines of the team confirming the departure of CEO Gwyn Dolphin, who started just before last month's Tasmania event.
“It has been a really tough day. The car had promise and we worked very hard and we have got nothing to show for it,” Stanaway said.
"Working with [new engineer Andrew Gilliam] Gilly has been really good and we were able to really advance from where we were Friday to where we were today as far as the car performance and the potential was really there.
“But it just felt like everything was against us there in both races. We will regroup now and hopefully we can have some better luck tomorrow while continuing to improve our car."
Teammate James Golding climbed from 23rd to 16th, and 21st to 15th. However, with Stanaway’s issues, PremiAir took home just 62 points from Saturday. Only Brad Jones Racing’s second crew scored fewer points, courtesy of Evan’s double non-score.
“I have had worse days but it wasn’t what we expected or hoped for heading into today,” said Golding, who who despite finding speed in the second race, dropped from 11th to 13th in points.
"Obviously yesterday we didn’t really show anything but we didn’t get a clean lap in Practice 2 so we didn’t really know where we were. Unfortunately, today we found out bluntly where we were and we weren’t quick enough.
"There was still a lot of positives, good strategies and the car improved, so I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
