'Super numb' Ipswich puts Ojeda on the ropes

Rookie seasons always have their ups and downs in the Repco Supercars Championship. Ipswich was firmly in the latter camp for PremiAir Racing's Jayden Ojeda.

On a weekend where Chevrolet as a whole struggled, Ojeda was a ways back from the lofty results he has been achieving in recent rounds, finishing no better than 18th across the weekend.

There was no lack of trying from Ojeda, who spun after colliding with David Reynolds and Andre Heimgartner on Saturday and Sunday respectively, being whacked with 15 seconds for his efforts in the Reynolds incident.

It now leaves Ojeda facing a do-or-die situation in the Ryco Enduro Cup, having slumped from 132 points adrift of the bubble to now be 198 points behind with big points days at The Bend and Bathurst to come.

It was especially disappointing given Queensland Raceway was a home event for the team, which had also completed a full day's testing with the sister car of Declan Fraser in July.

When asked if the weekend was a disappointment on Supercars' Equip Super Cool Down Lap, Ojeda responded: "Yeah definitely, obviously some higher expectations coming into the round being a local circuit for us.

"Friday was okay, not the worst. Definitely some positives to take from the day, but then just as the weekend rolled on, it just seemed like nothing we'd tried in our toolbox that normally will give us the results — everything was just super numb.

"Just a little bit difficult. We weren't getting the same responses and direction from the setup changes that we'd normally get, and definitely left us a little bit confused.

"I think that's probably pretty common across a lot of the GM cars, obviously with the GM network we can see what everyone's doing, and we just tried to cover as many bases as we could between our two cars."

The 27-year-old was confident that the team had discovered a positive direction by the time the weekend came to a conclusion, with his true performance masked by his spin trying to overtake Heimgartner.

Despite his vast experience around the world in GT competition with Mercedes-AMG, Ojeda admitted that his Supercars race craft is still coming up to speed.

"I think some positives to take from the race today, I think generally we're quite competitive and speed-wise. Just a mistake making the pass on Andre, which happens, and I just need to get better in the race craft with these cars, and just figure that out," Ojeda continued.

"Still a lot for me to learn, so we'll take that away. Plenty to test on Tuesday, and try to get some answers on that, and hopefully roll out better and have a better weekend at The Bend."

Ojeda will head to the Nürburgring for a three-hour GT World Challenge Europe endurance event from August 28-30, before returning to Australia to resume his Supercars campaign.

Ojeda will be joined by veteran David Russell for the Ryco Enduro Cup, which begins at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend from September 11-13. Tickets are on sale now.

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