Ojeda Secures Career-Best Supercars Finish at Airtouch 500
Jayden Ojeda has secured a career-best Supercars Championship result, finishing fifth in the AirTouch 500 at The Bend Motorsport Park after a challenging 500km race in constantly changing conditions.
Ojeda and PremiAir Racing showed strong pace throughout Friday practice, with Ojeda topping Practice 1 and Practice 3. Co-driver David Russell recorded P14 and P15 in his two sessions before Ojeda finished P13 in Practice 5.
Ojeda qualified eighth on Saturday before progressing to the Top 10 Shootout, where he secured tenth on the grid for Sunday’s endurance race.
"Unfortunately I didn't put the best lap together for the shootout today, but a massive thanks to the team for our weekend so far. It will be a long race tomorrow but it feels good to be starting from within the top 10," said Ojeda.
With the track declared wet ahead of the start, Race 29 presented plenty of strategic questions from the outset. Russell took the opening stint, navigating extremely difficult conditions with poor visibility, standing water, and many drivers experiencing aquaplaning, before handing the car over to Ojeda.
The 500km race proved a long and challenging test as the PremiAir Racing crew navigated the wet weather and multiple Safety Car periods before the AirTouch 500 ultimately went time-certain, with the race finishing after 141 laps rather than the scheduled 147.
Ojeda continued to fight at the front and brought the #31 Chevrolet Camaro home sixth on the road. Following the chequered flag, a five-second time penalty for Payne promoted Ojeda and PremiAir Racing to P5.
The result marked a new personal-best Supercars race finish for both Ojeda and his engineer Andrew Gilliam, while progressing Ojeda to 12th in the overall driver's championship.
“It was a pretty chaotic race today, we were expecting a little bit of rain but nowhere near as much rain as we got.” said Ojeda.
"The crew did an awesome job with all the pit stops, and we had a really strong car in the wet. My first top five finish and a really awesome way to end 500km of racing.”
Russell echoed the difficulty of the opening stint, with the wet start presenting a unique challenge for the experienced co-driver.
“I was just glad to get off the line and get going, because it’s not often you get to do a wet start in a Supercar,” said Russell.
“Visibility was incredibly poor, there was a lot of aquaplaning, and they were probably some of the most difficult stints I’ve done in a Supercar.”
Team Principal Roland Dane was pleased with the hard-earned result and the championship progress.
“It was a hard-earned fifth place for the #31 in very difficult conditions. We’re pleased to have moved Jayden up to 12th in the championship, and we’ve still got a shot at the top 10 depending on what happens at Bathurst,” said Dane.
The P5 result delivered a significant milestone for Ojeda and the entire PremiAir Racing crew, rewarding their continued work with a strong result from one of the most challenging races of the season.