While the 28-year-old’s finish of fourth in Race 11 of the Repco Supercars Championship at Hidden Valley matched his and PremiAir Nulon Racing’s best result thus far, it was arguably a bigger achievement than those two prior.
Golding had finished fourth as Garth Tander’s co-driver in the 2017 Sandown 500, then for PremiAir on the Sunday of last year’s Newcastle 500, the first event of the Gen3 era and hence when the pecking order was unsettled.
Furthermore, the Darwin result was achieved from pole position – his and the Peter Xiberras-owned team’s very first – after being fastest in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session.
Between that and team-mate Tim Slade’s solid run, the evidence points to the upswing being no fluke.
“Yeah, definitely, hundred percent,” Golding told Speedcafe when that logic was put to him.
“And, sometimes you see drivers go good at certain tracks and all that; I honestly haven’t had the best run at this track previously.
“So, it’s also good for me that… You know, I’m not just shit at that track sometimes; people say that sort of stuff.
“It’s awesome to have both cars up there and we’re [he and Slade] talking about the same sort of stuff and bouncing ideas off each other and working together, which helps as well.
“When the other car’s struggling, you’re sort of on your own there for a bit.
“So, it’s definitely good and just exciting, and can’t wait to get into it again [today].”
Nevertheless, there was some sense of disappointment to let a podium slip.
Golding had converted pole into the early lead before eventual race winner Broc Feeney forced his way past at the Hairpin on Lap 4, a move which the PremiAir driver claimed was “borderline” but went unpunished.
Winterbottom followed Feeney past and Golding lost another spot in the pit stop cycle, having had to give way to Anton De Pasquale when exiting his box.
“It’s certainly disappointing when you start on P1,” admitted the #31 Camaro pilot.
“We came so close there but it wasn’t it wasn’t our day; a couple of things didn’t go our way on-track and in the pits.
“We can’t be unhappy, though, because we, we did a lot of things right.
“We did what we could in a lot of areas and we’ve been really trying to improve the consistency and build up, which we’ve done very well this weekend.
“The weekend’s not over yet. We can smell it; we’ve just got to rinse and repeat quali, tune up the race car, and do it all over again.”
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