Engineer reunites with team after surgery lay-off

Tim Slade's race engineer Mirko De Rosa has made his first trackside appearance for some three months.

De Rosa, the race engineer on the #3 CoolDrive Mustang, recently underwent back surgery.

The surgery kept De Rosa away from race tracks following June’s Darwin event.

De Rosa was present with the team at Winton on Tuesday during pre-Bathurst testing.

Slade, Tim Blanchard and the team joined a number of Victorian teams at the circuit.

Blanchard, who will make his 12th Bathurst start, was pleased to have De Rosa back.

“We’ve got Mirko back on deck today, which is the first time for two to three months that he is back on the tools for us,” Blanchard said on a Supercars Facebook live video.

“Which is fantastic and already makes a big change to the team having him here in the garage.

“Looking forward to Bathurst."

Blanchard will race with Slade for a second season; they finished in the top 10 last year.

The team has undergone a number of staffing changes in recent rounds.

Notably, Team Manager Brendan Hogan shifted to the automotive side of CoolDrive.

Slade has had different engineers in recent rounds; notably, veteran Walley Storey substituted at Sandown.

Hogan also skippered the car in Townsville, with Blanchard skippering the team.

Mathew Nilsson assisted at The Bend.

Tickford Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United, Grove Racing, Brad Jones Racing and Matt Chahda Motorsport also tested on Tuesday.

Erebus Motorsport and Team 18 will test at Winton on September 28.

Queensland-based teams will also test at Queensland Raceway on September 28.

Slade is 10th in the championship heading to Bathurst.

Tickets for the Repco Bathurst 1000 are available on Supercars.com and Ticketek.