Unlocking BRT potential driving quiet achiever Slade

The Merlin Darwin Triple Crown marked another strong weekend for Tim Slade, who scored his third top 10 in four starts.

Slade’s return to the full-time ranks began with a remarkable run in the Bathurst season-opener, only for a late accident to halt his podium charge and bring his weekend to an early end.

After mixed results at Sandown and Symmons Plains, Slade and his Blanchard Racing Team crew returned to the front in Tailem Bend.

However, Slade’s standout start of third lasted a matter of seconds after he was taken out in an early skirmish.

He finished the weekend with a fine seventh, before recording finishes of seventh, 19th and ninth in Darwin.

WATCH: BEST PASSES IN DARWIN

"Sandown was an up and down weekend for us; we made a few changes to the car early on Saturday which were the opposite direction to what they were supposed to be,” he told Supercars.com.

"We struggled in the wet on Sunday, but in the last 15 laps of the last race when we put our second set of tyres on, we were the second fastest car.

"I came out of that going, ‘If we got it right, we could’ve contended’.

"Tassie, we had some brake issues on the Saturday, which was a bit random.

"While we didn’t have great qualifying speed, we moved forwards in the two races on the Sunday."

WATCH: CLASH IN PIT LANE DISCUSSED

The Box Hill-based squad worked on its pit stops at the Winton test day after the OTR SuperSprint.

Slade said the benefits showed in Darwin, with the team identifying where they had gone wrong in previous events.

"The Tailem Bend weekend was a ‘what could have been weekend’ as well," he said.

"We really should’ve finished in the 10 in all three races; got taken out by Dave in the first race, you saw what happened in the first Sunday race, and we lost time in the pits in the last race.

"Darwin was a bit the same; the first race, we were seventh, but we could have been higher because we lost time in the pits to something we’ve sorted now.

Three top 10s in four starts for Slade

"The car was speedy in the second race, but we had to pit to remove the diffuser which had been knocked off on the first lap."

The CoolDrive team is in its first season as a standalone outfit, and the building blocks are still being put in place.

The team has recently completed a major upgrade of its workshop, but Slade said the missing link remains in the guise of headcount.

"I feel as though every weekend this year, we’ve had a lot of potential, but just for one reason or another, it hasn’t looked awesome results-wise," he said.

"A big thing has been lacking staff; we’ve had a lot of different weekend mechanic guys for the first few races of the year.

Damage ruined Slade's Race 13 effort

“As a result of that, your pit stops suffer, because you don’t have the same crew practising with each other throughout the weeks in between the race events.

"With these short races, it’s all about qualifying and pit stops. And if you lose three seconds in a pit stop, you lose spots."

Regardless, it all come together in the Darwin finale; while it wasn’t his highest finish of the season, Slade was delighted with his team’s performance.

It came in a race he started 14th, and battled with the Tickford Mustang of Cameron Waters, who needed to execute a bold move to steal effective eighth.

"Ninth in the last race, I was actually really happy,” said Slade, who was adamant he is driving better than he ever has.

'Ninth in the last race, I was actually really happy'

"It was the first race all year where I felt as though we executed and maximised what we had.

"We started 14th, had a good start, passed some cars and the guys did a good job in the pits.

"We were aggressive with the strategy, and it paid off.

"It was a really nice way to finish the weekend off."

Slade is 18th in the points heading to next month’s NTI Townsville 500. Tickets for the event are on sale now.