Brad Jones Racing’s owners, savvy racers Brad and Kim Jones, signed the journeyman at the start of this year after the 30-year-old had been a regular top-10 placegetter early in his career.

With a proven eye for spotting unrealised potential, the Jones brothers snapped up the determined speedster with an eye to the future, and Slade isn’t disappointing them. 

His race form has been outstanding, pushing top 10 finishes in most of this year’s seven races. But a strong performance from Friday is a must if he is to keep his 2016 title hopes alive. 

The Championship heads to Perth and the heat will be on a number teams and drivers to get good results or risk losing touch with the leaders and face an early exit from this year’s championship race.

While some teams may say that “it’s still early days”, history suggests that its hard claw your way back from an indifferent start to the season.

Despite some good results, BJR has its two main contenders sitting precariously close to missing the cut with BOC driver Jason Bright in 13^th place, 234 points behind championship leader Jamie Whincup and Tim Slade’s Freightliner 267 points in arrears.

Both drivers have good history at the tight, sandy Western Australian layout, with Bright finishing fifth in 2015 and Slade also having a top-10 result.

The cars hit the track for practice on Friday with races on both Saturday and Sunday.