DEAL OR NO DEAL

SLADE RUNS GAUNTLET WITHOUT CONTRACT

GOLD Coaster Tim Slade has made the stunning revelation he will drive for Brad Jones Racing at the Supercars season opener next week without a contract.

Slade has been BJR’s lead driver for the past two seasons and will again turn out for the Albury-based family team in 2018 alongside Nick Percat and Tim Blanchard.

The two-year deal Slade originally inked to join the squad expired at the end of last season and he revealed he was happy to continue on an unwritten agreement with team bosses Brad and Kim Jones.

It is an arrangement virtually unheard of in the modern era of sport as a big business.

“It’s not done,” Slade told the Bulletin when asked where his contract was at.

“It’s just what it is. It’s the relationship I have with Brad.”

The 32-year-old had said in the lead-up to the Gold Coast 600 in October that the Joneses “feel like the kind of people you can drive for based on a handshake rather than a 50page contract.”

Slade has been vocal about how happily he fits in at the Holden outfit and is so relaxed he has no plans to put pen to paper to lock away his future.

“No, not really. I am just happy with the situation that I am in,” he said. “I want to be there and Brad wants me.”

The two-time race winner started his campaign in style last Friday by setting the fastest time at the category-wide test day at Sydney Motorsport Park.

He assured fans the performance was “legit speed”, even if it was at a vastly different circuit type to the Adelaide street race Supercars will head to next weekend.

“The car was really, really hooked up at the end on the new tyre,” Slade said. “To have a result like that at the first day and basically a trouble-free run was pretty good.”

BJR are looking to bounce back from a year plagued by crashes, though Slade steered through the carnage to hold 11th place in final standings.