Roland Dane livid by PremiAir Racing fuel error
Cooper Murray lost top 10 finish with late pit stop on Sunday
Murray stop one of two that promoted Anton De Pasquale into Semi Final
A frustrated Roland Dane has vowed that there won't be a repeat of the fuel shortage that cost new recruit Cooper Murray a top 10 finish in just his second race for PremiAir Racing.
Replacing Declan Fraser alongside Jayden Ojeda at the Chevrolet squad, Murray was impressive in his first weekend with Peter Xiberras' squad, largely outperforming teammate Jayden Ojeda.
Having finished sixth at Bathurst in his last start for Erebus Motorsport, Murray was on course to all but match that running in seventh with six laps to go in Sunday's Gold Coast finale.
However, that was dashed when he was forced into a third pit stop on lap 80 of 85, following a strategic misstep. His Erebus replacement, Jarrod Hughes, was also forced into pit lane just a handful of laps prior whilst running an excellent fifth.
Both of those stops allowed fellow Chevrolet driver Anton De Pasquale to progress through to the Semi Finals. Claims of race manipulation were emphatically denied by GM Supercars chief Simon McNamara, whilst Hughes revealed he wasn't aware of the trouble he was in until a late call to pit.
Dane was typically blunt about what had occurred with his team, unravelling what was a positive day for Murray: “Qualifying today was better, certainly with Cooper making the top 10 and the Shootout. He would have been on for a good top-10 finish in the race if we’d put enough fuel in the car at his second stop.
"We didn’t, and that cost him the result. It wasn’t good enough, and it won’t be repeated.
“It hasn’t been a good day, and I can’t wait to get to Sandown and try to redeem ourselves.”
Whilst a deserved top 10 finish went begging, there were still plenty of positives for Murray, who showed glimpses of speed right from the wet opening practice session, though he crashed twice on Friday, including a costly error in Boost Mobile Qualifying.
A wet qualifying session on Sunday saw Murray flourish again, securing seventh in the Top Ten Shootout, before maintaining position inside the top 10 right up to his unscheduled final stop.
“Gold Coast 500 done and dusted. It was a bit of an up-and-down weekend. Yesterday was good for both of us, and we both moved forward a lot in the race," said Murray.
“We had another crack at qualifying this morning in the wet, which was really good fun. Getting into the Shootout for the first time with the team was really cool.
“The race was going along very nicely. We were running around sixth or seventh and were in the fight for a top-five finish, but unfortunately we had to come back in for more fuel, and that was our day.
“A big thanks to all the PremiAir Racing boys for their work across the weekend.”
