![Repco Supercars Championship - Round 1 - Bathurst 500](https://speedcafe.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/RSC-Bathurst500-Friday-172-1024x683.jpg)
The #23 Camaro becomes #200 for the Wanneroo Supercars event, Slade’s 200th in the championship.
The South Australian also has a more substantial change on his side of the garage, this being his first event with PremiAir Competition Director Ludo Lacroix as his race engineer, after Mirko De Rosa stepped away from the team.
As before, James Golding has Romy Mayer as his race engineer on Car #31.
“In Perth – a 10,000km round trip from our Arundel headquarters on the Gold Coast in Queensland – we are greatly looking forward to celebrating Tim’s milestone, and to building on the strong showing he had their last year with some top ten results and an impressive drive job around a broken gear selector,” wrote Team Manager Stephen Robinson in the squad’s Wanneroo preview.
“From this event onwards Tim is partnering up with our Competition Director Ludo Lacroix as his Lead Engineer.
“Ludo has had some great success in the West in the past, including 14th to 1st with Craig Lowndes in 2016 and 18th to 1st with Scott McLaughlin in 2018.
“He tells us that he loves Perth, and with the steps made forward at the GP and at Taupo, I can tell you things are feeling quite positive on that side of the garage ahead of this event.
“For Jimmy [Golding], he and Lead Engineer Romy Mayer have also been hard at work as they look to continue their momentum from the recent rounds.
“Golding’s last trip to the West showed plenty of strength, driving from P24 to P14 in the first race of the weekend, from P22 to P11 in the second, and from P19 to P11 in the third, so they have plenty to build upon.”
Slade has two race wins in the Repco Supercars Championship, both at Winton in 2016 during his time with Brad Jones Racing.
Practice 1 at Wanneroo starts on Friday at 14:20 local time/16:20 AEST.
Meanwhile, PremiAir owner Peter Xiberras will be chasing records of his own this weekend at Sydney Dragway, where two rounds of the NDRC Top Fuel Championship will be held as part of the Nitro Champs.
“We have been having some trouble in our 60 foot times of late, which has definitely been holding us back, so goal number one will be to try and get that sorted out on Friday,” said Xiberras.
“We are of course also very motivated to reclaim the ET record that we held since 2021 and lost to Damien Harris at the last event. If we can get our 60 foot time sorted out, I think we can make a real shake of that across the two days.
“And finally, of course we want a win, two would be amazing!” he added.
“With the Top Fuel title chase speeding to its conclusion with three rounds left to run, two of which are being held this weekend, the stakes are definitely very high this weekend.
“We will be giving it everything we have got, that is for sure.”
Xiberras will still be keeping an eye on his Supercars team from afar.
“It is never ideal when these events clash but obviously with the extreme wet weather for the originally scheduled Nitro Champs weekend, moving it was the right call,” he declared.
“We have an amazing PremiAir Nulon Racing Supercars team in place and I have full confidence they will be putting on a fantastic effort in Perth while we are here fighting in Top Fuel in the PremiAir Nulon Racing Top Fuel Dragster.”