Golding soars to Sandown pole

GRM has given the burnt #31 Mustang a new lease of life, and James Golding has repaid them by taking pole for the Trans Am opener at Sandown.

Golding’s impressive 1:10.2335 smashed the field by a massive three tenths, with teammate James Moffat his nearest rival.

Aaron Love in just his second round for Marcos Ambrose Motorsport, put in a strong performance to secure third as the sole Camaro in the top eight. Championship leader Todd Hazelwood was fourth, while Nathan Herne could only manage 16^th.

It is a case of history repeating as Golding made his Trans Am debut at Sandown last year and memorably put it on pole.

Golding was more delighted with his latest effort after a massive build-up for GRM.

Golding’s #31 Mustang was burnt to a crisp in Darwin, robbing Elliott Cleary a drive.

GRM has now arrived at Sandown with not only the #31 repaired to give Golding a return, but also brought another Mustang to give Cleary his crack as part of a six-car program.

Golding was thrilled to not only deliver for himself, but the entire team.

“It is awesome to pay all of the boys back,” he told Auto Action.

“It is a credit to the team. They did an awesome job getting it repaid.

“They did a full strip down and replaced a lot of parts, and also prepped a new one so Elliott can race as well.

“This shows the level this team is at.”

In regards to the lap itself, Golding thought it was pretty tapped out.

“I was pretty happy with the lap and sent it hard over the hill at Turn 6,” he said.

“I got behind Todd and got a tow off him so it all came together kind of perfectly.”

Golding admitted he was surprised to compete for pole after experiencing some struggles in practice, where he was more than four tenths off the pace.

“I did not really expect this after practice, where we struggled a bit with the car, but we made some changes and really nailed it,” he said.

“We mainly struggled with exits and made a tweak for qualifying.

“We may have to tune it up more for the race because it will need to last well.

“Overall, really happy with the car now.

“I have always gone pretty well around this track and have enjoyed driving here.

“There is some passing you can do, but it is not easy around here.

“Being the quickest car so far and starting P1, we just need to execute and make no mistakes.”

GT World Challenge finished proceedings almost in the dark as its Pre Qualifying session wrapped up.

Fans could have been mistaken for believing it was a day-night version of Sandown 1000 as GTs flew around Sandown with headlights ablaze and gloomy skies overhead.

Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti started the day on top in Practice 1 and ended it at the top of the timesheets as well in Pre Qualifying.

The #66 Mercedes posted a 1:08.1717 in the final session of the day, shading Jordan Love and Stephen Wyatt by 0.0882s.

Practice 2 was Lee Holdsworth’s time to shine.

Despite being on category debut, Holdsworth used his 12 Hour experience brilliantly to post a 1:08.1020.

This restricted Love and Wyatt to second once again by half a tenth.

After an epic rebuild, Multispares Racing almost clean swept its first day back in track following a huge Queensland Raceway crash in the GT4 Australia.

Having topped Practice 1, Ryan Hansford and Aaron Cameron emerged second in Pre Qualifying.

The only pair to beat them were Blake Purdie and Daniel Price, who were back on the pace in their Audi R8.

Their 1:14.0611 was two tenths clear of the Multispares Mustang, which was the only non-Silver car in the top five, ahead of Jake Camilleri.

Nash Morris and Zoey Woods, plus Tom Hayman and Max Geoghegan ensured Porsche and McLaren featured in the top five.

Aussie (Ozzy) Racing Cars also went qualifying with a familiar driver in P1.

Reigning champion Joel Heinrich was the only driver in the 1m18s window with his 1:18.7607 well clear of the rest.

Kody Garland was three tenths adrift and the only driver within eight-tenths.

Jack Boyd in the Aurion put Johnston Craill Racing onto a strong third with Caleb Paterson and Ryan Reynolds also in the top five.

As usual, the Radical Cup Australia is a two-horse race with Cooper Cutts and Peter Paddon well clear after three practice sessions.

Cutts finished the day fastest with his 1:11.6401 half a second clear of Paddon, while Reindler/Moore were more than a second adrift.

Racing takes centre stage on Saturday where 7plus will broadcast the all action and 7mate will screen it on free to air from 14.30.

Speed Series Sandown Saturday schedule

Read the new issue of Auto Action Digital HERE

Buy the new issue of Auto Action Premium HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here or you can purchase a copy of the latest issue from one of our outlets here.