Top 10 Supercars drivers of 2024: James Golding
As 2024 winds down, Supercars.com is ranking the top 10 drivers of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship, continuing with James Golding, who comes in as our #9.
After showing glimpses of promise over the past few seasons, it all started to come together for James Golding and PremiAir Nulon Racing in 2024.
The Victorian was one of the breakout stars of the 2024 season, consistently finding himself fighting amongst some of the biggest names of the sport.
Golding even found himself running in the top five in the standings on several occasions throughout the season, though couldn't quite hang on through a mix of poor performances and costly mistakes by the team.
Seventh in the standings was a just reward for a personal-best season, which also sees him enter our list of the top 10 drivers of the season.
James Golding's season stats
Championship position: 7th
Best finish: 3rd (Sandown)
Average finish: 11.33
Race head-to-head with teammate: 16-8
Podiums: 1
Best start: 1st (Darwin)
Average start: 12.54
Qualifying head-to-head with teammate: 13-11
Why we picked him
PremiAir Racing continues to rise towards to the top of the Repco Supercars Championship field, and 28-year-old Golding is leading the charge. 2024 will be marked as an important season for Peter Xiberras' ambitious young squad, who ticked off two important milestones this year with Golding. The first pole position for both team and driver in Darwin was a sensational performance to upstage the 'factory' Triple Eight Camaros, however Golding perhaps could've put up a stronger defence against an aggressive Broc Feeney in the early stages of the Saturday race. A missed opportunity at a podium was quickly forgotten by an equally impressive performance at Sandown, finishing third alongside David Russell to claim PremiAir's first podium finish. Whilst his good days were very strong, there were still off weekends for both team and driver which will need to be addressed should they want to fight at the front on a regular basis.
What we expect next season
The big question surrounding James Golding and PremiAir Racing heading into next year will be whether or not they can claim that elusive first win. A reunion with former Garry Rogers Motorsport teammate Richie Stanaway could be just what is needed to push both Golding and PremiAir further towards the front in 2025. David Russell has already been locked in to pair with Golding again for the Enduro Cup next year, giving the Victorian even more stability to build on a promising 2024 campaign. The impending arrival of race engineer Romy Mayer's second child in autumn could pose a challenge, however PremiAir have a strong engineering group led by Ludo Lacroix, with former Triple Eight engineer Simon Hodge set to re-join the team he was loaned out to in 2022.
