Darwin Rundown
Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Jayden Ojeda had a successful weekend at the recent Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.
The wildcard #27 Commodore driver has now completed his two solo wildcard race weekends in the Supercars Championship, headlined by 17th place finishes in the Saturday races at both Winton and Darwin, also managing to break into Qualifying 2 at Winton.
Ojeda’s pair of events for Walkinshaw Andretti United were considered a great success by the team, and hopefully can put him in good stead to graduate into the Repco Supercars Championship.
In an ultra-competitive 27-car field Jayden ended ahead of rival wildcards Jordan Boys (Image Racing/Erebus Motorsport) and Zak Best (Tickford Racing).
Ryan Walkinshaw described Jayden’s wildcards to Speedcafe.com as “really, really good”.
“He managed to qualify quite well for someone doing a wildcard and raced quite well. At one point before the last couple of laps in Darwin, I think he got to P12 or P14 which was pretty decent at a difficult track and different conditions, and running with really an inexperienced crew, so I think those guys did a really, really good job.”
Walkinshaw added that he hopes to see Ojeda use the WAU outings to springboard towards bigger and better things.
Jayden himself reflected positively on the whole experience. “So much thanks must go to WAU for running a proper three-car team (alongside regulars Chaz Mostert and Nick Percat), I was included as part of the team at every opportunity, I learnt so much,” said Ojeda.
“At the end of the day, although you’re competing against the guys that do it full-time – our main focus was trying to see how far up amongst those guys you can get – but obviously it was good to be quicker and knock off the counterparts in the wildcard as well,” Ojeda told Speedcafe.com.
“The wildcard campaign is a good opportunity to launch myself into the next step in my career,” he noted.
“Hopefully it puts me one step closer to getting into the main game next year; we’ll just have to wait and see how all the cards play out.”
“Hopefully there’s something not too far away, but yeah I guess focus goes into that now that the wildcards are done and we’ll see what happens,” Ojeda said of his co-driving prospects at this year’s Bathurst 1000.
Jayden was also most thankful of the support from East Coast Lubes and Mobil 1 for his wildcard campaign.
The #27 Holden ZB Commodore also carried support from Morris, New Age Caravans, Walkinshaw Performance, City Hino, Johnny H Adventures, Metropole, Vantage Freight, Criticool Services, AJM Transport, and UMS.
