Slade opens up on retirement decision

Tim Slade has opened up on his decision to hang up the helmet on full-time Supercars racing.

Slade announced Thursday that the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship will be his last as a full-time driver, 15 years after his debut in 2009.

The 39-year-old’s future had long been a talking point, but amid a silly season rumour mill, Slade has decided to end his full-time career on his own terms, leading to several former and current drivers paying tribute online.

What we do know is PremiAir Nulon Racing will field a tweaked line-up in 2025, with incumbent driver James Golding to commence the new season with a new teammate.

The Peter Xiberras-owned team targeted Brodie Kostecki and Anton De Pasquale, but was unable to land either driver.

All the while, Slade quietly thought about his own future, and didn’t want to stand in the way of the team’s pursuit of another driver.

“It’s something that I've thought about for a while now,” Slade told Supercars.com of retirement.

“Especially knowing how the driver market was and with someone like the current champion off-contract and you being in the latter phase of your career, you put yourself in your team owner's shoes and understand things could change pretty easily.

“If I was a team owner I'd definitely be chasing a proven A-plus driver and that's something I've mentioned to Peter a couple of times.

“Later I was told I’m not going to be there next year, but all along, I've said to myself that if I’m not continuing with PremiAir, then I'm not going to try and continue my career elsewhere.”

Slade, who is in his 15th full-time Supercars season, joined PremiAir at the start of 2023. The South Australian born driver finished 19th in that year’s standings, and sits in the same position one year on.

He has already undergone two mid-season engineer changes, with PremiAir Competition Director Ludo Lacroix taking over from Mirko De Rosa three rounds into the season, before Andrew Gilliam took over in Tasmania.

The veteran revealed talks over potential co-drives have been “happening for months” amid questions of his future, but said nothing had been locked in yet.

On his own decision, Slade added: “It was working out if it was something I actually wanted to keep doing or not, really.

“We still haven’t managed to convert into good race results.”

In his initial retirement social media post, Slade singled out the influence of father Gil —himself a racer — and James Rosenberg, who both played crucial roles in what proved to be a 400-plus race Supercars career.

A young Tim received his first go-kart for his ninth birthday, and after winning races in South Australia, set off racing in New South Wales and Victoria.

It led him on a path to South Australian businessman Rosenberg, who has helped the development of young talent such as Nick Percat, Jack Perkins, James Moffat and Todd Hazelwood.

However, Rosenberg particularly supported Slade, from his teenage days in Formula 3, racing an ex-Perkins Engineering Holden Commodore in Super2, and into Supercars.

Rosenberg bought a VE Commodore from Paul Morris that helped Slade into the main game in 2009, before Rosenberg took licences to Stone Brothers and Erebus Motorsport.

“I definitely wouldn’t be in the position I am today without Dad and James,” Slade said.

“I joke that Dad lived his life through me a bit, with my driving career. He put in every thing he possibly could to make it happen. He made so many sacrifices to make it all happen.

“We’re not a wealthy family, we needed lots of help and support along the way. Without James, I wouldn't have raced in Supercars.

“James was a huge part of making it happen in Super2 and then again in Supercars. There are so many people that have helped along the way, and I’m extremely grateful."

Slade will race with rookie Cameron McLeod at the upcoming Repco Bathurst 1000, before rounding out his full-time career at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 and VAILO Adelaide 500.