Supercars driver Tim Slade chases more speed at The Bend home track
The Bend has been a happy hunting ground for South Australian driver Tim Slade, who this weekend hopes to find the one thing that has eluded him all season.
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The last time Supercars driver Tim Slade raced on home turf at The Bend, he placed on the podium.
Granted it was in a Hyundai Excel and not his usual Holden ZB Commodore Supercar, but the experience in June at the Circuit Excel SA round at The Bend Motorsport Park took Slade back to his roots.
“I had a skid in Dad’s Excel (race car),” he said.
“It was a bit of fun and cool to do a race with Dad … how we used to race all those years travelling the country and my first year of Formula Ford together.
“We haven’t done that kind of thing for a long time.
“It’s an awesome little category. It was good fun in some mixed weather conditions.
“(But) the cars are chalk and cheese to Supercars.”
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It was a highlight for what the Freightliner Racing driver describes as a “terrible” year since the month after the first round at the Adelaide street circuit.
Slade, 34, finished fourth in the second race on Sunday, his best result since the Sunday race at last year’s OTR SuperSprint.
He backed that up with a third-place finish in race 5 at the Australian Grand Prix round.
But since then, Slade said no changes to try to improve his car had seemed to work.
“The start of the season wasn’t too bad. I wasn’t that happy with our outright speed,” he said.
“The car hasn’t really reacted to any change and we’re struggling with small issues.
“It’s been frustrating and disappointing.”
While not confident heading into this weekend, he still will be buoyed by last year’s result.
“It was one of our better rounds last year,” he said.
“Typically high grip, or a new surface — normally new surfaces provide high grip — that has tended to suit the BJR (Brad Jones Racing) cars in the past.
“We had a fairly strong run there last year and obviously hoping for more of the same this year but it’s pretty hard to go into any race confidently, just because of the level of competition.”
Slade is out of contract at the end of this season but next year’s position in the field is the least of his concerns.
“My biggest drama at the moment is getting some speed out of the car,” he said.
“I’ll deal with that first.”
No matter what this weekend’s result, Slade will relish the time at home.
“Once you enter the actual race weekend, it’s just like any race weekend — after so many years of doing it, your head’s trained to go into race meet and you shut off everything else around you,” he said.
“But anytime we’re coming back to Adelaide, I always try and make a trip out of it to catch up with family and friends, see Mum and Dad.”