PremiAir Racing names new Slade engineer

Tim Slade’s first season with PremiAir Racing will come alongside new race engineer Phillip De Fazio, the team has announced.

Di Fazio will engineer Slade’s #23 Chevrolet Camaro from the Thrifty Newcastle 500.

Slade and Di Fazio have worked together previously with the HubAuto Racing GT squad.

Di Fazio takes over from Sheldon Auhl, with Geoffrey Slater remaining alongside James Golding.

"Please join us in welcoming Phillip Di Fazio to PremiAir Racing," read a tweet from the team.

"Phillip will be the engineer on the #23 PremiAir Racing Camaro, driven by Tim Slade.

"Tim and Phil have worked together with great success before as part of the HubAuto GT team.”

Please join us in welcoming Phillip Di Fazio to PremiAir Racing!

Phillip will be the engineer on the #23 PremiAir Racing Camaro, driven by Tim Slade.

Tim and Phil have worked together with great success before as part of the HubAuto GT team. #WeArePremiAir #RepcoSC pic.twitter.com/usEVRRAqr2

— PremiAir Racing (@premiairracing) February 28, 2023

Di Fazio has been the Team Director at HubAuto Racing since 2017.

Slade notably won the California 8 Hours at Laguna Seca aboard a HubAuto Ferrari in 2019.

The new driver-engineer partnership is being put to the test at PremiAir Racing’s final Gen3 test on Tuesday.

Slade and Golding are testing their respective Camaro at Queensland Raceway ahead of next weekend’s Newcastle round.

The team also handed the reins of its two cars to Dylan O’Keeffe and Joey Mawson at last week’s Sydney test.

O’Keeffe partnered with Golding last year, while Mawson is hunting a maiden Supercars enduro drive.

PremiAir Racing is joined at Queensland Raceway by Red Bull Ampol Racing’s #97 Camaro, and both entries from Shell V-Power Racing Team and Matt Stone Racing.

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will commence at the Thrifty Newcastle 500 on March 10-12.

Tickets are on sale on Supercars.com and Ticketek.com.

2023 engineering line-ups