Tim Slade has praised Brad Jones Racing’s decision to shakedown its new chassis at Phillip Island after he topped the times and avoided splitter failures that affected two Holden teams at the pre-season test.

The two-time Supercars race winner ended the test day on top after posting a 1:28.616s effort in the final moments of the afternoon session at the Western Sydney venue.

Holden teams and in particular BJR entered the test day in trepidation after its all-new ZB Commodores suffered splitter problems at the fast and flowing Philip Island circuit earlier this week.

The issues prompted the team to send its components back to suppliers Garry Rogers Motorsport for repair before adding further strengthening in-house.

Four splitters failed during the Sydney test with GRM suffering three, while Walkinshaw Andretti United saw a failure on Scott Pye’s car.

A lack of spare parts due to the new Holden’s late roll out, teams were forced to end their test day early.

Further modifications to the front bar are expected before the season begins in Adelaide.

“Everyone has put in a massive effort to get to this point so to end the day at the top of the times is a great reward for our Freightliner Racing and Alliance Truck Parts team,” said Slade.

“A big thanks to all the crew here and back at the workshop.

“Fortunately the guys were smart enough to read the rule book and did our shakedown at Phillip Island.

“I’m not saying that having a stab, I just thought it was a pretty smart thing to do given that it is a high speed circuit and you get more of a feel of the aero package than at Winton.

“We had no idea that the splitters were going to do what they did down there.

“It was really fortunate that we did as we were able to take them back to GRM for those guys to repair and strengthen and then we did our own strengthening.

“They lasted today but fingers crossed they go the distance in Adelaide.”

Slade is not getting too carried away with the performance however, stating that Adelaide will be a true test of the new ZB Commodore package.

“A Supercar around Sydney Motorsport Park in the middle of the summer probably feels (more) like a rally car than a tarmac car on slicks,” added Slade.

“It is really hard to get a feel for the new car when the conditions are like that.

“To be honest there is nothing that really stands out. It is more so once we get to Adelaide and the first qualifying session is done you work out what your strengths and weaknesses are.

“That is probably where you work out what the package is truly like.”

The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship heads to Adelaide for the season opener from March 1-4.