TIM Slade admits he had to stop his mind drifting to post-race burnouts as he charged to a second race victory at Winton on Sunday to back up his breakthrough Supercars win.
In a bumper weekend for the Brad Jones Racing team, Slade became the second driver this year, alongside Volvo star Scott McLaughlin at Phillip Island, to sweep a round after finishing clear of defending champion Mark Winterbottom and DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard.
The day after finally breaking through for his maiden Supercars win eight years after making his debut in the series, Slade made the most of his home track advantage to double his race win tally in as many days.
Before Slade’s victory on Saturday, the Holden driver, in his first season with the Albury-based outfit, had finished second on the podium five times, setting up the second victory after qualifying on the second row.
The results delivered a shift again in the championship, with Winterbottom (1083) jumping from fourth to first in the standings ahead of McLaughlin (1056), Jamie Whincup (1047) and Craig Lowndes (1044).
Slade again thanked his team for delivering him a “rocket” for the weekend and said he second victory had felt much easier than the first.
Slade took back-to-back wins to sweep the Winton weekend.Slade took back-to-back wins to sweep the Winton weekend.Source: Getty Images
“I guess it’s true what they say, once you get the first one out of the way, it’s definitely easier the second one,’’ said Slade, who celebrated his victory with burnouts in the dirt.
“I guess the first one, there is still that, for whatever reason, that element of doubt in your mind because you haven’t done it before.
“Once we started getting closer to home I started thinking about burnouts and stuff like that, but I had to pull my head in and worry about keeping the thing on the track and getting it to the finish line.
“It was definitely a lot easier.’’
Slade’s pair of victories gave BJR its first back-to-back victories since former driver Coulthard clean swept for the team in Tasmania in 2013.
But he was hesitant to predict that his Winton success would automatically translate to more of the same.
“The category is so competitive, that you have an awesome weekend here. You don’t go into the next race thinking you are going to clean sweep that either,’’ Slade said.
“Sometimes a lot of hard work and knowledge goes into it, but sometimes there’s a bit of luck goes into it as well.
“I think everything just worked in our favour this weekend and we nailed it.’’
Earlier, Ford’s Chaz Mostert scored his fourth consecutive pole position at Winton for his 100th race start after lowering the lap record become the first driver to break the 1min19sec around the track — but that was as good as it got for the Prodrive star.
Coulthard led the early stages.Coulthard led the early stages.Source: Getty Images
In a dramatic opening to the 200km race, Coulthard got the jump on Mostert off the front row of the grid in a start so efficient it immediately came under investigation by race control.
But Coulthard was cleared of any breach for jumping the start as he set about an early battle with Slade at the front.
Mostert’s race took another bad turn when he was forced to the pits for on lap 23 for a tyre puncture after running into the side of James Courtney attempting to overtake, leaving the Holden Racing Team driver with significant damage to the left-hand side of his car.
After starting on pole, the 2014 Bathurst champion ended up 20th, while Courtney finished 25th in a forgettable weekend for HRT.
Leading the championship coming into the round, Lowndes finished eighth after his 15th on Saturday.
The Supercars now have a month off before the next race in Darwin from June 17-19.
