Cooper Murray crashed out of Friday qualifying on the Gold Coast
PremiAir recruit met the concrete after tripping up in Beach Chicane
Murray qualified 20th for Saturday's race, ahead of Jayden Ojeda
PremiAir Racing has time on its side to repair the damaged car of Cooper Murray, who poked fun at himself despite crashing out of his first qualifying session in team colours.
Murray, who shifted to PremiAir from Erebus Motorsport ahead of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, crashed in Friday qualifying at the notorious Beach Chicane.
The #36 PremiAir Camaro was damaged in two of the day’s three sessions, after Murray gently nudged the barriers at Turn 15. The qualifying crash did much more damage, with PremiAir crew quickly stripping down the car and completing repairs.
While the accident cast a pall on the day, PremiAir crew has plenty of time to fix the car, given Murray isn’t due to get back into the Camaro until Saturday’s race at 3:15pm local time.
Additionally, PremiAir Racing is based in nearby Arundel, meaning they have plenty of time to chase down possible spares, should they strike further trouble.
When asked on the broadcast about the incident, Murray made light of the incident with a reference to Larry Perkins' famous line from the 1999 Bathurst 1000, when Nathan Pretty crashed.
“Just a young kid having a crack. What did Larry say? Young kid, cold tyres, whatever,” Murray smiled.
“Unfortunately I just made a little mistake. I’ve been struggling there in the last session just then. I was trying to find a little bit of time but this place bites when it bites.
“Just didn’t attack the kerbs as well as I should have. I was a little bit off-line for that last kerb when I hit it. At that point, I was a passenger.
“The car was looking fairly good until then. It was just myself and my driving in that chicane.”
Murray out-qualified teammate Jayden Ojeda, the duo 20th and 23rd.
Weather has dominated the lead-up to the weekend, with Practice 1 punctuated by rain.
When asked by Supercars.com about potential weather for Saturday’s race, Murray returned with one of the lines of the season.
“If it’s wet, we’ll put wet tyres on, and if it’s dry, we’ll put dry tyres on," the Victorian said.
Chevrolet spearhead Anton De Pasquale will be last man out for the Shootout, which commences at Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 12:35pm local time/1:35pm AEDT.
