Slade was at the wheel of Brad Sherriff’s Nissan Skyline R34 and was fastest in qualifying at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park, 1.6 seconds faster than Tamasi in his Chev powered Holden Calibra.

During the race they vied continually for the lead and swapped places a couple of times before Slade won by a narrow 0.15 seconds.

Ash Jarvis was comfortable in third place until the Monaro/Chev suffered a rear puncture and pulled off the circuit. That elevated Steven Lacey (IRC GT SS) who won a three-way battle he had with Ryan Humfrey (Falcon XE/Chev) and John Holinger at the wheel of the Geoff Taunton IRC.

Michael Robinson (Monaro/Chev) finished just in front of former V8 Ute racer Michael Bartsch (Toyota 86/Chev) while Matt Sims (BMW/Chev) ensued ahead of Jeremy Davidson (Mazda RX7 FD) and Bernie Stack in the ex-Murphy/Richards Holden VT Commodore Supercar. Myles Bond (Mazda RX8) was another non-finisher.

Former series champion Darren Hossack was scheduled to drive John Gourley’s Audi/Chev but it suffered a fire on Friday. Also a non-starter was Brad Shiels in Joe Said’s Fiat 124 Turbo Rotary after it broke a driveshaft in practice.

The Bend Classic also featured races for Group N Historic Touring Cars, Formula 5000, Historic Formula Fords and Groups M & O.

The meeting was cut short due to lightning in the area and will resume on Sunday.