Brad Jones Racing’s (BJR) Tim Slade is looking forward to heading back to the track where he won his first ever Supercars race at last year’s event.
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Slade had competed in 226 Supercars races and finished on the podium 10 times, but had never stood on the top step.
“I’d gone a long time without winning a race,” Slade said.
“Previous to that I’d had a lot of podium finishes, and you’re at that point as a driver where you wonder when that win is going to happen, and if it even is going to happen.”
Slade dominated the weekend with a pole position on Saturday, before winning both races.
“The car was really good at the start of the year when we had the test day,” he said.
“It was pleasing to know that it was still as fast when we went back there for the round in May.”
“Pole position and a race win on Saturday was awesome, and to back it up on Sunday was even better.
“For me, it was a huge amount of personal satisfaction to finally get that win. There was a bit of emotion going over the finish line.”
It has been a different start to this year’s championship, with the Albury-based squad finding themselves in the middle of too many crashes to score a reasonable amount of championship points.
Slade is currently 13th in the championship, a massive 334 points from the leader, DJR-Penske’s Fabian Coulthard.
“Looking forward to this years’ round at Winton, I’m never one to get my hopes up or predict what is going to happen at the next race,” Slade said.
“There is a new tyre this year and we haven’t tested it at Winton, so we don’t know what difference it will make around the track.
“There are a few teams this year that have really stepped their game up. My only hope is that we can go there and be as competitive as we were last year.”
He was recruited to BJR at the start of last year’s season and has quickly repaid the faith that team owners Brad and Kim Jones have in him by being on front-running pace at most races and fitting into the team’s family culture right from the start.
Heading back to Winton is a good opportunity for Slade and BJR to get their season back on track.
“We’ve had a fairly lean run of results over the past couple of rounds, so to get back up the top at Winton would be truly satisfying for everyone involved, especially for the guys and girls who have had a big couple of months at the workshop,” Slade said.
The Supercars hit the track on Friday for two practice sessions, followed by races on both Saturday and Sunday.
