Townsville Race Day 1
Jayden Ojeda in the JAYCO MWM Nissan Altima has come home 2nd in Race 1 of the Dunlop Super2 Series at the NTI Townsville 500.
In qualifying earlier in the day Jayden had put together a fantastic lap and was a mere 0.0336s sec behind the pole position time to sit on the front row of the grid.
During qualifying Jayden had moved up to second when he wheeled the #31 Nissan Altima to a 1:14.5311s in the sixth minute, and then to the top with a 1:14.2471s next time around. His time was pipped on the post by the tiniest of margins, leaving him on the front row of the grid in position 2. Eggleston Motorsport’s Tim Blanchard followed in third, and Matt Stone Racing’s Aaron Seton fourth.
“Qualifying was high pressure, with only 10 minutes it’s important to get everything right, and I was able to set a quick lap,” said Jayden. “It was so close, 33 thousandths of a second! The team did an awesome job, I cannot thank them enough”.
In the race both Jayden and the Triple Eight Race Engineering driver Feeney got a similar jump, with the later leading the field through the first turn ahead of Jayden and Tim Blanchard.
Jayden had plenty to worry about from the get-go, coming under early pressure from Tim Blanchard, managing to defend and hold out the experienced Supercar driver.
The leader got caught up passing traffic on Lap 14, but Jayden had even more trouble threading his way through the Super3 class backmarkers, even making some contact as he was forced around the outside at the final corner.
Jayden battled for all 21 laps around the Reid Park Street Circuit, holding onto his 2nd place, with the final official margin of victory only 0.7326s, with the final two-and-a-bit laps run under Safety Car.
“That was a fun race, a great result with a good batch of points to go with it! I didn’t have the pace early, so I hustled hard to keep Tim Blanchard in my mirrors. There were a few close calls with a couple of lapped cars toward the end to create a bit more tension as well.” said Ojeda. “I am excited we get to go and do it all again tomorrow”.
“My thoughts are with all my friends and family from Sydney, I understand times are really difficult at home now, and hopefully we were able to bring a little smile to some faces during this tough time” he added.
Thank you to all my partners that helped get me on the grid and supporting me! Thank you to Jayco, Lets Go Motorhomes, Sparesbox, City Hino, Mondiale VGL, Nepean Regional Security, AJM Transport, Johnny H Adventures, PAT Racing & Performance, The Western Weekender & Parra News, One Point Health, Martcom, EurOz Driver Performance, and Super 6 High Performance.
The Super2 Cars will return for ARMOR ALL Qualifying on Sunday morning at 9:30am, with Race 2 at 1.25pm. The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo and will be broadcast live and free on Seven.
