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James Golding is hopeful he can make a full-time return to the Supercars Championship in 2021 after a “pretty good” Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
The 24-year-old made his Supercars debut in 2016 with Garry Rogers Motorsport before going full-time with the team in 2018.
However, the team’s departure from the sport at the end of 2019 put Golding’s career in the championship on hold.
This year Golding joined Team 18 alongside Mark Winterbottom in the #18 Irwin Racing entry for the sole endurance race of 2020.
After finishing eighth, the Melbourne-based driver is keen to come back full-time next year
“I’ve had ambitions to come back as a full-time driver ever since I left, but I went for the best opportunity available this year and that was driving with Frosty in the enduros,” said Golding.
“I think we maximised what we had and had a pretty good run in the race, so I’m not sure what may come out of this weekend.
“I’m talking to a few people but nothing anywhere near locked in yet so we’ll see what happens.
“They’re a really great bunch of people at Team 18 and all so easy to get along with and work through anything we wanted to get through in terms of improving the car or our procedures.
“I loved working with the team, everyone worked well together which made the weekend much easier and that’s why we got the most out of the day.”
Golding said he was pleased to come away with a top 10 finish, improving eight places from his starting position with Winterbottom.
The day wasn’t entirely trouble free, however. A gear position sensor issue meant a slow start.
“It was a pretty strong comeback for Frosty and I, considering where we started and where we were at in practice,” said Golding.
“We didn’t get off to the best of starts with the gear position sensor not reading properly, it read that I was in neutral and I thought I was in first gear but I was actually in second.
“I took off in second gear so that’s how we lost all that ground and ended up in last place.
“So to recover back to eighth place I think was pretty good and a fantastic job by the team, they worked faultlessly all day and didn’t put a foot wrong.”
