Tim Slade has drawn upon his wealth of experience to pull off a phenomenal race three fightback in his one-off appearance behind the wheel of the Autoglym Lynk & Co at Queensland Raceway.
The Supercars Championship star was a high profile replacement for Tom Oliphant who missed the fourth round of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia season as he got married to long time fiancée Gen in his home country of England.
Slade was immediately up to speed, qualifying fourth in the Lynk & Co. In race one, a stall off the line dropped the #11 to the back of the field from where it was tricky to overtake. After just narrowly missing the reverse grid pole, Slade started the second race from 11th and would finish in 12th.
With an adjusted setup for race three, Slade was masterful off the line to vault from 11th to fifth on the opening lap of the race. After an early Safety Car, the Autoglym entry was a constant threat at the front as Slade challenged for the podium places, ultimately finishing just short with a fourth place finish.
Slade enjoyed his outing, highlighting the Lynk & Co’s strengths on more technical tracks.
“It was enjoyable, thanks to Ash and Tom for the opportunity, and all the partners of the team (Autoglym, i98 FM, WIN Network, AWC) for making it happen,” said Slade.
“I feel like I got the most out of what he had in qualifying, but the first race was massively disappointing to lose that track position. I thought I had messed up the start, but it was actually something more technical with the start procedure which we learnt about after that race, and it wasn’t a problem for the last two.
“All the cars in the category make their speed a little differently, and the way the Lynk & Co makes its speed isn’t in a straight line. Once we got back in the pack, it was just hard to pass and then it was a little salt in the wounds to miss the reverse grid by one spot. I feel we improved the car every race and it was much better in the last one. A lot of the changes were aimed at making the straight line better, which of course takes away from cornering.
“We had hoped for more from the weekend, but we couldn’t have done much more about what happened in the first race and from there on,” concluded Slade.
Oliphant will return to the wheel of the Autoglym Lynk & Co for round five of Supercheap Auto TCR Australia at Sandown Raceway from September 8-10.