James Golding is set to make a surprise full-time return to the Supercars grid with the championship’s newest team, PremiAir Racing.
It comes after the Gold Coast-based outfit spectacularly sacked Garry Jacobson mid-season with no explanation given.
Golding will pilot the Subway-backed Holden ZB Commodore for the remaining seven rounds of the 2022 season.
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The car will also switch numbers, dropping #76 in favour of #31.
The Melburnian was to contest this year’s Bathurst 1000 with Team 18 alongside Scott Pye but was released by the team just hours before the PremiAir Racing announcement.
That has permutations for Team 18, which now finds itself in need of a new co-driver for the Great Race on October 6-9.
Golding’s confirmation at PremiAir Racing comes just days out from the seventh round of the season, the Townsville 500 at the Reid Park Street Circuit.
“I’m stoked to be joining the PremiAir Racing team as the driver of the Subway car for my long-awaited return to Supercars,” Golding said.
“I’d like to thank everyone that has been involved in getting this deal over the line, especially Peter Xiberras [team owner] for giving me the opportunity.
“I’m looking forward to working with everyone in the team, and I can’t wait to get to Townsville.
“It feels great to be racing full-time once again, especially after what felt like such a long time away. In saying that, the break has given me time to reflect and re-focus.”
Golding comes to PremiAir Racing with a wealth of Supercars experience.
Having made his championship debut in 2016 as a co-driver, he contested a handful of wildcards in 2017 before going full-time in 2018.
Those all came with Garry Rogers Motorsport. However, when the team pulled out of Supercars at the end of 2019, Golding was left without a full-time drive.
Since then, the 26-year-old has contested the Bathurst 1000 twice with Team 18 alongside S5000 campaigns with Garry Rogers Motorsport.
This weekend’s Townsville 500 across July 8-10 takes in two 250km races.
Drivers will have hard compound tyres at their disposal but will also be allowed one set of super soft tyres to be used exclusively in-race.
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