Golding recounts Race 26 chicane incident
Supercars
30 Oct 2023
James Golding survived wall hit to finish sixth in Gold Coast finale
Golding clouted wall chasing Cam Waters for third in closing laps
Scott Pye crashed out after Golding executed flick spin at blind chicane exit
James Golding says there isn’t "any good time” to execute a flick spin after rotating at the blind first chicane following his incident with Scott Pye in Race 26.
Nulon Racing driver Golding hit the tyre wall at the front chicane on lap 78 of Sunday’s Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 finale.
Chasing Cam Waters for third, Golding spun the #31 Nulon Camaro, which came to to rest facing the opposite circuit direction at Turn 3.
Matt Payne, Shane van Gisbergen and Will Brown got through, but Pye, who was next on the scene, clipped the Nulon Camaro and the wall as Golding executed a flick spin.
Pye incurred race-ending damage to his #20 Hino Camaro, and triggered the bp Ultimate Safety Car which set set up a grandstand finish to the race.
Golding crossed the line seventh, but was promoted to sixth with Brown hit with a five-second penalty over exceeding track limits.
There was a yellow flag to driver’s right waving at the marshal post just prior to where Golding’s car sat. At the time of the incident, Golding was 1.3s ahead of Payne, who was 2.8s ahead of van Gisbergen.
Brown was three seconds down on van Gisbergen, with Pye just 0.8s behind the #9 Coca-Cola Camaro.
“You can talk to the team, but there are people firing in there at 250[km/h], there’s not really any good time,” Golding explained on the Schick Cool Down Lap podcast.
“The field is spread out over the whole lap, it’s a short lap — when do you do it?
"If we’re right out of position and down the back, which we weren’t — we were still at the front in good contention.
“If I was going to flick it onto the race line? Obviously I wouldn’t have done that.
"I thought I had enough room, but you’ve got to make a split-second decision facing the wrong way with cars coming at you."
The Golding incident was reminiscent of Brown’s crash in the morning ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout, with both cars avoiding serious damage.
Golding said he felt “pretty vulnerable” in the middle of the circuit, with the incident similar to Brown’s crash in the 2018 event, when several drivers managed to get past his stricken car before he was hit by Steve Owen.
Regardless, the flick spin incensed Pye, who was critical of Golding’s actions and the lack of penalty for the #31 Nulon Chevrolet driver.
Golding wore his initial error with the wall hit, but reiterated that there was little else he could have done.
On the initial incident, Golding said: “Obviously my fault, just being a bit too conservative on the kerb strikes, because we were out of them.
“Just got wide and got the tyres like a few people have this weekend. I was stuck in the middle of the track and felt pretty vulnerable, so I flicked it ‘round and kept it pretty much in the middle of the track.
“Obviously some cars got past, and some didn’t. Apologies for those that got caught out in my incident, but I don’t really know what else I could’ve done differently.
“It’s still positive, to finish P6 and be running right at the front is awesome for our young team. We’ll keep pushing forward."
