THERE is a strange set of oxymorons in play when it comes to Tim Slade’s form entering the Townsville 500.
On the one hand, he’s on a career-best run of successive top 10 starting slots – six, spanning both races at Taupō, Perth and Darwin – showing that the 38-year-old is not slowing down by any means.
On the other, he’s failed to finish higher than he started on any of those occasions.
“Normally qualifying is the hard bit and people are going ‘the race car is fast but we just need to qualify better’,” Slade told V8 Sleuth.
“Sure, we still want to qualify better because I think we have only really been around about that eighth mark, give or take.
“We’re just struggling a bit with the race car pace and therefore I think the tyre life, just because that pace isn’t there.”
Various setbacks in pitlane haven’t helped, but Slade feels they’re gradually getting there.
“Unfortunately, just things don’t really translate exactly how they should between the two cars, so it’s not as easy as going ‘they did this, we’ll bolt that in’,” he noted.
Either way, the trend of going backwards in races is in stark contrast to how things tended to play out at his previous home, the Blanchard Racing Team (2021-22).
“That’s the bit that does your head in,” confessed the two-time Supercars race winner.
“It was the opposite then; we couldn’t get the speed out of it in qual, but then you’d race forwards into the 10. Whereas now, we qualify decent and then just seem to (go backwards).
“And it’s frustrating in the race because you don’t really feel as though you’re on the front foot attacking; it’s like ‘we not quite there’ and you go into damage limitation mode a little bit.”
Guiding Slade through the challenge is renowned engineer Ludo Lacroix.
The duo worked together in 2020 when Slade co-drove with Scott McLaughlin at DJR Team Penske, and have been directly paired up at PremiAir Racing following Mirko De Rosa’s post-Taupō departure.
“His history speaks for itself,” Slade said of Lacroix.
“He is just a super passionate guy with obviously a massive amount of knowledge and he gives it his all.
“He’s not afraid to say he got it wrong and I’m the same, and I think if everyone you work with is like that, that is the ideal situation. We’re all human, we all make mistakes… it’s just a part of the game.
“But I have a massive amount of trust and confidence in him.
“Even though he has done it for the amount of time that he’s done it for, he still has a lot of passion and love for the sport.”
