Ojeda WINS Bathurst 6 Hour!
Penrith local Supercar driver Jayden Ojeda has won the 2023 Bathurst 6 Hour in a tense and thrilling race.
The 2023 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour finished with a one-lap flyer after a late safety car, with Jayden Ojeda driving the Simon Hodges Secure Wealth Advisers Class X BMW M4 to victory, a victory they had to wait until the final lap to get.
The race had everything with twelve safety cars and even a red flag for a period.
The race began in mostly cold and windy conditions on Mt Panorama and featured three lead changes in the first two laps, with Jayden passing Anton De Pasquale on lap two to be out in front. Then the race settled down until the 40 minute mark when the first safety car appeared.
The Jayden Ojeda and Simon Hodges team had to overcome several technical problems at the start of the weekend, but a great team effort got the car to the start.
“The whole weekend was chaotic,” Ojeda said. “From practice two, we were looking for an electrical demon and I call it that because we could not find it for the life of us. So, practice two, three and even qualifying, we were really compromised.”
“Then ahead of the race, we finally managed to get it to work as we wanted to and from that first stint, I knew that we had to pace to win the race. It became just a matter of getting the car to hold on. Simon jumped in and did an awesome triple stint in the middle part of the race, before handing the car over to me in a strong position” he added.
“I just knew what I had to do, and I just went out and just really had a crack.”
Of course, like most Bathurst 6 Hour events, there was some late drama to add to the spectacle. While it proved to be a nail-biting affair that went right down to the wire for the spectators, it was more tense in the team’s garage with a collection of mechanical issues to the BMW and a number of safety cars deep into the final stint of the race.
“Close to the end of the race, probably halfway through my final stint, we were managing a gearbox issue, so I was trying to look after that,” Ojeda explained.
“I also got tagged by a lapped car as well, so the steering on the right hand was down, I had a fair bit of tow out in the right rear, so across the top, it was a bit sketchy”.
“We also weren’t sure where we were sitting on fuel after the final pit stop, so I had to manage that too and then to cap it all off, we had the low fuel alarm come up a couple of laps from the end, which scared the life out of me.”
The final curveball Ojeda had to deal with was the late safety cars that brought the field back together and undone all the previous work that he had done in building a healthy buffer. This resulted in all the front runners diving into the pit lane for their final stops, with Jayden vaulting to the lead after making an untimed additional pit stop as opposed to those making their final timed compulsory stops.
“Our strategy worked really well, our strategy manager Jack Bellotti smashed it. We got our Compulsory Pit Stops out of the way early enough, so that our last stop was just fuel and go, which helped us from a track position, in front of all the others that had to do their compulsory pit stops at the end”.
“We had the late safety car and I was almost trying to push them down the straight to get him to the line so that we could finish under the safety car, but it was awesome to finish under green and get it done in racing conditions as well,” Ojeda added.
Jayden held his nerve to claim a career-defining win.
“We just wanted it to run green the whole way because I kept opening the gap which was awesome, and I think I was managing the traffic better than others, and I was pulling away further but then the safety car would come out and put them right on my back again. It was really nerve-wracking in the end, but I am stoked.”
“A huge thank you to Simon Hodges and Aaron Grech and the rest of the team, and my partners City Hino, Johnny H and Nepean Regional Security who have supported me for this amazing result” he added.
