'Error in judgment' behind Slade crash
An unforced error was behind Tim Slade’s crash in Race 32 qualifying on the Gold Coast.
Slade will start 25th and last for Sundays’ Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 finale.
The CoolDrive Racing driver clipped the inside wall at Turn 11 during the 20-minute session.
The car shed a spring from the front left corner, and the suspension was damaged.
Slade managed to nurse the car back the pit lane, but he was unable to rejoin the session.
The Gold Coast local nearly suffered a fate similar to that of Chaz Mostert in 2019.
Three years ago, Mostert clipped the inside wall during the Saturday Shootout and fired into the outside wall.
Such was the impact, that Mostert was ruled out for the remainder of the weekend.
In this instance, Slade got away with it — and he admitted it came down to a misjudgement.
“Just [an] error in judgment,” he said on the broadcast.
“Clipped the inside wall there; it’s just broken the front suspension.
“There’s obviously a little bit of time now between now and the race.
“I don’t know the extent of the damage but I think it’s just a matter of unbolting the broken stuff and then bolting back in some new stuff.”
Slade will shift to PremiAir Racing in the off-season, with the team based in downtown Arundel.
The team had a bright moment on Sunday as James Golding scored PremiAir Racing’s first Shootout berth.
It came at the expense of Broc Feeney, with Golding firing in his time as the chequered flag flew.
It did little for Slade, who will have his work cut out for Sunday’s 85-lap Race 32.
“We just went out on a used tyre and did a timed lap at the start,” Slade continued.
“So that was the first set of greens.
“Unfortunate, but it’s done now and we’ll just concentrate on the race.”
Shane van Gisbergen paced qualifying, with the Shootout to commence at 11:35am local time.
