Bathurst winning engineer returns

Reigning Bathurst winning engineer Geoff Slater will return to the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship at Hidden Valley, working alongside Macauley Jones.

Slater elected to leave Tekno Autosports at the end of last season following a five-year tenure that included victory at Bathurst with Will Davison and Jonathon Webb.

While eyeing a move overseas, Slater has this year been working on Eggleston Motorsport’s Super2 program and says he’s looking forward to a one-off return to the main game.

BJR’s engineering manager Andrew Edwards had run Jones’ car at Winton, where the 22-year-old twice qualified in the top 20 on his debut at a main series sprint round.

“It was a last-minute call from Brad asking if I’d like to work with Macauley for Darwin,” Slater told Supercars.com.

“I jumped at the chance to get back into the main game, thinking about strategies again and working with this new tyre for the first time.

“Andrew and the other BJR engineers are a good bunch of guys, so I’m looking forward to working closely with them to benefit all four cars.

“Macauley had some good qualifying pace at Winton. He wasn’t quite as happy with his race balance, so that’s something for us to work on for the weekend.”

Macauley Jones with father and team owner Brad

Jones, who finished 20th and 23rd in the respective Winton races, has this year added two wildcard drives to his Super2 and Pirtek Enduro Cup duties with BJR.

Slater will provide a wealth of experience to Jones’ Hidden Valley campaign having spent over a decade in the category, including earlier stints at Britek and Dick Johnson Racing.

Although winning Bathurst was a career highlight, Slater said he had already made up his mind to leave Tekno at the end of the season.

“I was seeking a new challenge,” he explained.

“My goal was to go overseas and I’ve been overseas a couple of times but I’m still focussing on finding a full-time position.

“It’s been good to take a step back, reflect on the years gone by and what I want to achieve moving forward.

“But I’ve missed the intensity and the competition that the main game presents, so it’ll be good to get back in there.”

Jones is one of two wildcards in this weekend’s field, with MW Motorsport entering a Nissan Altima for Jack Le Brocq.