THERE was a distinctly different vibe to the two sides of the PremiAir Racing garage come Sunday afternoon at Bathurst.
On the #31 half, there was contentment as James Golding completed a day in which he started and finished inside the top five, despite a Lap 1 clash with Broc Feeney.
That was in stark contrast to the #23 side, after a wretched weekend for Tim Slade spent toiling outside the top 15.
The usually easy-going Slade was visibly agitated after Race 2, engaging in animated discussion with PremiAir competition director Ludo Lacroix.
It marks a continuation of the form trend from the back half of last season, the intra-team upper hand seeming to slide from Slade to Golding.
Reunited with his former Blanchard Racing Team engineer Mirko De Rosa, turn was cited as a limiting factor for Slade.
“The #23 was struggling for speed all weekend and it had some issues with turn, but Tim did a really good job to do what he could and hopefully he can have a much better showing at the next round,” said team manager Stephen Robertson.
The 38-year-old was not the only Supercars race winner to struggle at the Thrifty Bathurst 500, with Anton De Pasquale and Cam Waters leaving Round 1 even further back in the points.
“We (the #23 and the #31) were not too far apart when we started the weekend, we were pretty similar (on set-ups) but yeah, we were nowhere really and were battling a lack of speed and a lack of turn all weekend,” said Slade.
“We need to find the answer to that. It is awesome to be working with Mirko again though.”
Next up is Albert Park, where Slade last year bounced back from an early practice crash to record PremiAir’s only top 10 result of that round.
