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Tim Slade will drive the #23 Chevrolet Camaro in the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship, PremiAir Racing has announced.
As has typically been the way during PremiAir’s short history, drivers have been allowed to choose their race numbers, with team-mate James Golding opting for his preferred #31 upon his arrival midway through the 2022 season.
#23 has significance for Slade too, being the number he ran during the 2008 Super2 Series on his SladeSpeed VZ Commodore.
“My first racing number in karts was the #24, which I used for the first half of my karting career,” explained the 37-year-old.
“When I moved into the top junior class that number was already taken, so I dropped the ‘4’ and from then on, I used #2.
“The next time in my career I had the opportunity to pick my own number was in 2008 with SladeSpeed, but again, the #24 was already taken and so was #2, so I chose the #23 as it is obviously close to #24.
“I also generally just liked the number, having been a bit of an NBA fan as a kid with Michael Jordan and also the cricket with Shane Warne, who both carried the 23 in their careers.”
#23 has recent history in the Supercars Championship, with 23Red Racing as recently as 2020 and, prior to that, at Nissan Motorsport given ‘two’ and ‘three’ in Japanese are ‘ni’ and ‘san’ respectively.
However, it is also a special identifier for Slade, given he scored his first race and round victories in Super2 with it.
“Racing in 2008 using the #23 with SladeSpeed was a special year, due to the way we went about it, and that made my first race and round win in Supercars that year feel even better,” he added.
“It was a massive effort from my whole family along with my long-time supporter, James Rosenberg, and I guess you could say that campaign really helped to create the opportunity for my start in the main Supercars category.
“With the history behind it, I really want to say thank you to Peter [Xiberras, team owner] for allowing me to choose my own number upon joining his team – it is really nice to have a bit more of a personal feel to it all.
“I am greatly looking forward to this new era in my Supercars main game career with PremiAir Racing and to be carrying #23 as I make my 400th Supercars race start in Newcastle – I can’t wait to get into it.”
Slade, a two-time Supercars Championship race winner, replaces Chris Pither at PremiAir, with the Kiwi having run #22 for the Gold Coast-based squad.
PremiAir is set to undertake its first Gen3 test next week at Queensland Raceway, on February 9.
