MOTORSPORT: Slade and BJR dominate Winton

It took Tim Slade 226 race starts to record his first Supercars win. Then he doubled his tally within 24 hours, to deliver himself and Brad Jones Racing a clean-sweep of the Winton round of the championship.

Incredibly, Slade is the ninth winner in 11 races in the 2016 championship. There has never been a season as even and hard fought as this and there may never be again.

“This is how we do it in Albury,” he chortled as he performed some impromptu circle-work on the infield grass post-race on Sunday in the Freightliner Racing Holden Commodore VF, referencing BJR’s home base an hour up the Hume Freeway.

But the 30-year-old’s metaphorical road to his first win has been much longer and nowhere near as smooth.

The South Australian was identified as a talent by Paul Morris as far back as 2009, but really blossomed at Stone Brothers Racing in 2012 when he finished fifth in the championship.

SBR became Erebus Motorsport in 2013 and Slade found himself driving an uncompetitive Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG. He transferred to Walkinshaw Racing for 2014-15 to drive the Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore, but a crash at Bathurst in 2014 nearly destroyed him mentally.

Slade replaced Fabian Coulthard at BJR for 2016. The New Zealander had also come from WR a wounded bird, only to be resuscitated within the tight-knit confines of a family-owned team that lives to race and races to live.

Slade is now following the same path to prominence, although his start to the season had not been especially impressive, struggling in qualifying and claiming only three top 10 finishes across the first nine races.

Much to team owner Brad Jones’ annoyance, the impact of the departure of Coulthard and his engineer Phil Keed to DJR Team Penske had been pondered upon in the press. Jones wasn’t necessarily rejecting the theory, but he is passionate about his team, protective of his employees and caustic in his appraisal – to their face to his credit -- of any one who isn’t.

On BJR’s newly resurfaced test track Slade’s Holden came alive on green Dunlop softs. He posted a new practice lap record on Friday, claimed pole positon for Saturday’s 120km race and then drove away from the field. In Sunday’s 200km mini-marathon he qualified fourth and then passed his rivals and raced on to a clear win.

“226 starts, two in one weekend, pole and quickest in practice – I hope this isn’t a dream … and I don’t wake up!” Slade told Foxsports post-race.

Crucially, Slade’s flawless driving was backed up by equally impeccable pit work and strategy, highlighted by a Sunday change of plans to cope with a bold play from Prodrive that put defending champion Mark Winterbottom into play for the win from 10th on the grid.

The Bottle-O Ford Falcon driver ended the race second, fighting off late-race pressure from Coulthard in the process, but understandably described the results as being as good as a win. Added to his third on Saturday Winterbottom exited the weekend leading the championship after arriving in fourth (not second as we erroneously reported Friday).

Winterbottom is the ninth championship leader this year, the points lead having transferred from Craig Lowndes to him via Saturday runner-up, Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin. The 22-year-old became the first Volvo driver to lead the Australian championship for 30 years. But 11th on Sunday meant he could not stay at the top, slipping to second place.

Perhaps significantly, it was at this meeting last year where Winterbottom took over a championship lead he was never to lose.

Winton didn’t only follow the traditional script for BJR and Prodrive. As has become normal, it defeated the best efforts of Triple Eight Race Engineering with Lowndes, Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen unable to claim a single podium finish between them. The crack squad’s winless streak at the country Victorian track now extends to four years. Owner Roland Dane, absent because of business commitments, would not have been amused.

But the Triple Eight trio remain very much in contention for the championship as the top five make a break on the less consistent pack, which is led by Tekno’s Will Davison and Slade, who has jumped from 14th to seventh in the championship over the course of one glorious weekend.

His former WR teammate James Courtney is headed the other way. The winner of an incredibly battle with Whincup on the opening day of the championship in Adelaide, the Holden Racing Team driver became a magnet for PRA Falcons at Winton, tangling with rookie Cam Waters on Saturday and pole qualifier Chaz Mostert on Sunday.

Intersperse that with 20th place in Sunday qualifying – one position behind teammate Garth Tander – and Courtney’s misery was complete. By Sunday night his usual cheery smile had become a rictus grin.

His grim mood reflected that of a despairing team going through the most public and painful of development processes. All at a time when Holden’s future commitment to the sport and the team itself is undefined.

Magnifying HRT’s woes was the performance of David Reynolds on Sunday. In an ex-WR Commodore now owned and engineered separately by Erebus, he was on fire on Sunday, blazing forward from 17th on the grid to an eventual sixth place.

His highlight was shoveling aside Tander at turn 3 in a burly move that was a payback for some rough-house racing that Reynolds had felt aggrieved about at the same venue in 2015.

It was a pass that typified the tough racing at Winton on Sunday. By contrast, Saturday had been largely processional as the fresh surface made for ultra-fast lapping but few passing opportunities.

Reynolds also led home all the Nissans on Sunday. Rick Kelly had finished fourth on Saturday, just milimetres from the podium, but a strategy misfire had sent him tumbling on Sunday. Michael Caruso qualified fifth on Sunday but could only claim 10th in the race. The Altimas are so close to victory now the frustration within this outfit is palpable.

Maybe it will come in Darwin where Kelly qualified on pole last year and Caruso won when he was a Holden driver back in 2009. That’s the venue for the next championship outing in one month, a timeframe which allows the teams to draw breath after a frantic and immensely entertaining start to the season.

Virgin Australia Supercars Championship points:
1. Mark Winterbottom -- The Bottle-O Racing – Ford Falcon FG X -- 1083
2. Scott McLaughlin – Wilson Security Racing GRM – Volvo S60 – 1056
3. Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia – Holden Commodore VF – 1047
4. Craig Lowndes – TeamVortex – Holden Commodore VF – 1044
5. Shane van Gisbergen – Red Bull Racing Australia – Holden Commodore VF – 997

See the full run down on V8SC points for 2016