HE'S a Supercars race winner, he's an accomplished GT driver who's stood on the Bathurst 12 Hour podium and now Tim Slade will be a trump card for Schumacher Motorsport as it aims for success in 2021.
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On Wednesday at Phillip Island Slade tested with the Bathurst team, doing laps in the Audi R8 LMS Ultra which will race in the Australian GT Championship.
He helped the team improve their car set up and offered pointers and a lap reference time for Brad Schumacher, who will race the Audi in the national level championship for the first time.
Needless to say, Schumacher is excited to have someone as highly credentialed as Slade to assist him and his team.
"To have the support of a current Supercars driver and also an accomplished driver in the GT format such as Tim Slade, yeah, it really just set our whole team up with confidence," Schumacher said.
"For me, obviously I take my racing very seriously and so does our entire team based in Bathurst and we put a lot of time and effort into our racing. As an amateur driver who's not doing this full-time and concentrating on operating my business as well, I can't be at a race track every day of the week.
"So to have a guy like Tim in our garage, it basically joins the area between the dots that you don't physically have the time to get to. Even today you're really making some gains as a driver just off the experience that Tim can provide you."
As well as driver coaching throughout the season, Slade will join Schumacher to race the Audi in the endurance round planned for the inaugural edition of the Bathurst International later this year.
The pair could also contest a Production Sports race together in March.
Just as Schumacher is excited about the new relationship, Slade is eager to be part of the Australian GT Championship when not busy with his Supercars commitments with Blanchard Racing.
"The Supercars calendar is not as many rounds as previous years, it's 12 rounds and test days and few ride days, but there are still plenty of weekends free," Slade said.
"Whenever something like this pops up, it's fun, it's in a good car and Brad's set up a good little team, as long as there's not a clash I'll jump at it for sure.
"When you're in something that you know you're a bit of a chance to get a good result, that helps too. It makes it even more enjoyable."
The relationship between Slade and Schumacher came about via mutual friend Chad Parrish. While it's only a new, it's clear there is plenty of respect between the two drivers.
While Slade has more than 300 Supercars starts to his career and 17 podium finishes in that series, Schumacher has a handy amateur record.
He won the outright New South Wales Production Sports Series crown in his rookie year, won the 2019 New South Wales Production Sport Cars Championship, enjoyed Bathurst 12 Hour class podiums and he sat on pole at Mount Panorama as part of last year's Aussie Tin Top Series.
"Chad thought it would be handy for Brad to have someone help him a bit with the driving side of things because I don't think he's had anyone do that before," Slade said.
"So I got to know Brad through Chad and it has sort of gone from there.
I guess he's not your standard amateur driver that I've previously helped, he's definitely more advanced than that.
- Tim Slade on Brad Schumacher
"I've only known Brad for a short amount of time, but I have a bit of an idea of what he's done previously. He's done a bit of racing in a few different categories now, I guess he's not your standard amateur driver that I've previously helped, he's definitely more advanced than that.
"I definitely look forward to working with him throughout the year, he's a really good bloke and I get along with him well."
While Slade got limited time during the test day at Phillip Island, he enjoyed the laps he did get in the Schumacher Motorsport Audi.
His prior GT experience in cars such as a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, a McLaren 650S and a Ferrari 488 made it easy for him to adjust.
The team clocked a fastest lap time of one minute, 30.1564 seconds. Only an Audi steered by another Supercars star in Chaz Mostert managed to do a faster circuit of the Phillip Island track.
"Most of the GT cars are pretty handy around a high-speed, aero track like Phillip Island, so it's definitely very comfortable to drive and does everything right," Slade said.
"I just enjoy driving anything and everything, as I said, it's just an added part to the job and it's satisfying when the person you're helping goes out and does what you say and goes faster as a result."