Nulon Racing has bolstered its engineering line-up ahead of the Supercars enduros.
The Peter Xiberras-owned team has added Simon Hodge to its crew as Race Engineer for the #31 Chevrolet Camaro of James Golding.
Dr Geoff Slater had previously held that role alongside the title of ‘Chief Engineer’, but is now referred to as PremiAir Racing’s ‘Director of Engineering’.
Meanwhile, Romy Mayer, another recent recruit, remains on Race Engineer duties for the #23 Camaro of Tim Slade.
On the Hodge signing, Slater remarked, “We are very pleased to welcome Simon to the team.
“With plenty of experience behind him and the right attitude, he has slotted into our line-up perfectly and we are looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together as we look to put together a strong finish to our 2023 season for Nulon Racing, starting with the enduros.”
Hodge is a Gold Star winner as a driver but also a qualified engineer, who has headed up Triple Eight Race Engineering entries in the Dunlop Super2 Series, worked on its Supercheap Auto wildcard effort in the Great Race, and remains committed to its GT3 programme.
He has already begun with PremiAir, including its pre-enduro test day at Queensland Raceway when Golding and co-driver Dylan O’Keeffe shared Car #31.
“I worked quite closely with Romy, who was the race engineer for the Triple Eight wildcard programme last year,” said Hodge.
“[I] have also worked with some of the other Nulon Racing guys including Geoff Slater in the GT programme, so it is great to be back with some familiar faces that I have really enjoyed working with in the past.
“Jimmy is really an emerging talent on the way up in Supercars and so is Dylan O’Keeffe, and I think they are going to be a really solid pairing for the enduros.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to work with both of those guys and hopefully, bring them some trophies.
“There is a lot to play for left in the year, and it is an exciting time to be joining the team.”
The Mayer and Hodge appointments have come either side of the arrival of Stephen Robertson as Team Manager.
His arrival follows the departure of Team Principal Matty Cook from the Arundel-based squad, with Robertson once also a Triple Eight employee but having most recently worked at Grove Racing as its Gen3 Project Manager.
Slade will be joined by Jonathon Webb, who owned Tekno Autosports before it was sold to Xiberras and morphed into PremiAir, in Car #23 for the enduros, with the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 taking place on September 15-17.
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