A REFUELLING issue compounded a weekend of missed opportunities for Tim Slade at Taupō Motorsport Park.
From fourth on the Saturday grid, Slade’s race was almost instantly over, having eyed the lead after a mega start, only for a fast-closing gap to send him and Cam Waters into the concrete wall on driver’s left.
Slade again led the way for PremiAir Racing in qualifying on Sunday, and was running fourth ahead of teammate James Golding during the middle stint courtesy of a double undercut strategy.
However, the #23 Nulon Camaro started to fade with tyre degradation, before a pitstop problem put paid to any hopes of a decent result.
Slade ultimately had to settle for 21st, while Golding soldiered on to take fifth.
“We just didn’t have the tyre life and then we had a drama with the last pitstop with not getting fuel in the car so that put a proper end to our race,” said Slade.
“So I am looking forward to dissecting the weekend and getting ready for the next one in Perth.”
PremiAir competition director Ludo Lacroix echoed those sentiments.
“We had a fuel issue where the fuel was slow going in and we had to basically conserve fuel and that is not going fast, and we just made the end of the race,” said the Frenchman.
“We need to understand why we were in that position.”
While Slade has sunk to 22nd in the championship, he has outqualified Golding in five of the past six attempts.
