Slade undertook pre-event testing aboard the Buckley family team’s brand new Chevrolet Camaro and then mentored the 17-year-old throughout the weekend.
Toyota 86 regular Buckley made headlines by scoring a pole position and both Sunday wins at the Queensland Raceway event, becoming the first female to triumph in the class.
Slade was brought into the program by mechanic Matt Black, who worked with the Supercars driver at Stone Brothers Racing and is now with the Buckley team.
The arrangement includes co-driving the Chevrolet Performance-backed car in August’s two-driver round, as well as work undertaken to land the perfect debut.
“I did a couple of half-days out at QR just getting the setup right; we found it needed to be a little bit different from the Hoosier [used in Trans Am] to the Goodyear tyre,” Slade explained to Speedcafe.
“Alice only got a half-day of testing in the car and she was pretty on it straight away to be honest.
“I probably didn’t expect her to score pole and win in her first weekend but I definitely expected her to be competitive and in the top five.”
Slade’s pre-event testing provided a benchmark for Buckley to compare to throughout the weekend, as is standard practice when mentoring rookies.
“Sometimes when you haven’t driven the car or circuit or don’t have any previous data to go off, you’re pretty confident you know what’s right and wrong but you’re not 100 percent sure,” he explained.
“In this case you can go, ‘brake here and here, because that’s what I did to do this lap time’.”
While Slade stops short of making any bold predictions about Buckley’s future following the eye-catching first-up TA2 results, he’s full of praise for her efforts and attitude.
Buckley held on to win Sunday’s final race by just a quarter of a second as she managed a deflating tyre and a hard-charging Diesel Thomas behind.
“The only thing that she could have done any better was her [rolling] starts but she’s never done them before and she improved a lot with every start that she did,” Slade said.
“Everything else, she nailed. She’s definitely not shy or scared of anything within the race car. You tell her to go and do something and she’s pretty good at going and doing it.”
Slade, now 39 and with two children of his own, admitted the mentoring role was a stressful and ultimately emotional experience.
“I think I’ve been emotional after a race only a couple of times in my own career, but when she scored pole and then the first race win, I was a bit emotional,” he said.
“Maybe it’s because I’m a dad and have a couple of youngens now… that’s kind of how it feels with Alice.
“It’s so much more stressful watching than driving. The butterflies are going pretty crazy. You are connected with it and you’re invested. It’s not just a job.
“It makes it even nicer when you really enjoy the group of people and the family that are there that you’re working with, you just want to see the best for everyone.”
Slade will co-drive alongside Buckley in the two-driver TA2 round at Queensland Raceway on August 15-17.
Next weekend they’ll be rivals at the Townsville 500, where Buckley will kick-off her latest full series campaign in the GR Cup and Slade will make a guest appearance.
“I dare say I’ll need some coaching from her that weekend,” he said.
Slade also contested the recent Trans Am Series round at Hidden Valley as he prepares to co-drive alongside Nick Percat at Matt Stone Racing in the Supercars Endurance Cup.
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