Supercars driver Tim Slade doing his best to battle through a tough season behind the wheel

“IT’S a nightmare I can’t wake up from”. Those are the words of Supercars driver Tim Slade who is battling through the most frustrating period of a career currently in limbo heading towards the back-end of the series.

“IT’S a nightmare I can’t wake up from”.

Those are the words of Supercars driver Tim Slade who is battling through the most frustrating period of a career currently in limbo heading towards the back-end of the series.

The Gold Coast-based Brad Jones Racing driver thought everything had finally turned at the start of the current series when he managed to secure six top 10 finishes from the opening three rounds.

But it was a positive blip on what has been a confusing and difficult period for Slade that began at last year’s Bathurst 1000 and he has now slipped from fifth to 15th in the Championship.

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A crash on the opening lap of this year’s Bathurst 1000 on October 13 ended his last race on the spot, adding to his frustrations.

“I have had times where one or two races didn’t go to plan and then we came back but other than one weekend in the last 12 months, there has been no outright speed,” Slade said.

“It’s probably the worst run I have had in my time in the sport … but because it’s been going on for so long, and even though it does hurt, you become a bit numb to it.”

Driver Tim Slade hopes to take home another surfboard from the GC600. He was answering questions at a press conference in Surfers Paradise to kick off race Week festivities. Picture Glenn Hampson

Slade is out-of-contract with BJR and has been linked to a potential move to Matt Stone Racing. The 34-year-old said he was yet to decide on his path forward and while he would prefer to stay on with his current team, he may be best looking elsewhere if results don’t change.

“Nothing has happened there yet. We are working out what everyone wants to do and we will go from there,” Slade said.

“With the run I have had for so long now I feel as though if things don’t change then there isn’t a whole lot of point continuing.

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“I just want to be competitive again. I have a really good relationship with Brad (Jones) and everyone else at the team so I’d love nothing more than for it to work.

“Fingers crossed things can turn around for the better but we will wait and see.”

Brad Jones said he had spoken twice to Slade about his future this year and if it’s right for him to move on then he will support him.

Matt Stone said he would love to have Slade join his team but any talk of a shift was purely speculation at this stage.

STORM IN A WHINCUP

Adding to Slade’s frustration is the disparity between his car and teammate Nick Percat’s.

“When Nick came to the team at the start of 2017 I felt as though we both drove the car similar,” Slade said.

“We had similar driving styles, we would come back in and providing we had a similar set up we would give the same feedback.

“I felt as though the car would do the same things and we could learn from each other.

“At this point last year I’d come in and say one thing and he would say the opposite.

“That makes it hard to progress because that is the advantage of running multiple cars in a team, you can learn from each other to move forward but when your car is doing something different from the rest of the team you have to go off on your own train a bit to try and make it better.”