Slade first appeared at a national level racing in the 2003 Australian Formula Ford Championship. During the 2004 Australian Formula 3 Championship, Slade, in his rookie season with Team BRM, won his first race when making a one-off appearance at the penultimate round of the series.[1] Slade returned to Formula 3 for the following season, beginning a long-running partnership with businessman James Rosenberg, who owned the car.[2] However, after having scored just 25 points after the first four races, compared to the 57 points of joint series leaders Chris Alajajian and Michael Trimble, Slade was dropped from the team.[3]
Turning his back on open wheelers, Slade moved into the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series for the 2007 season, starting the season with ANT Racing in a Ford Falcon (BA). However, Slade's season was blighted by a team shift to MW Motorsport mid-season and he finished ninth in the points. The highlight of his season was a second-place finish in the reverse grid race at Queensland Raceway.
In 2008 Slade renewed his partnership with Rosenberg, who purchased Slade a Holden Commodore (VZ) from Perkins Engineering, which ran under the banner of 'Slade Sport'.[2] Early in the season Slade won the Wakefield Park round, but poor results at Queensland Raceway and at Mount Panorama, plus the limited resources available, restricted Slade to seventh in the series results.
He had his breakout year in 2012 aboard the Lucky 7 Falcon, where he finished fifth in the championship. Stone Brothers Racing was then sold at the end of 2012 to Erebus Motorsport, who brought in the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG to V8 Supercars under the new Car of the Future regulations in 2013. However, the Erebus package struggled and Slade could only manage 22nd in the championship.
Slade moved to Walkinshaw Racing for the 2014, driving his team's #47 VF Commodore. This also marked a return to Supercheap Auto colours for Slade and a move away from his association with James Rosenberg, who coincidentally ended up running a sister car to Slade at Walkinshaw Racing for Nick Percat.[2] He finished the year in 17th position. He remained with the team for the 2015 season, finishing 13th in the championship.
After he announced he will retire from full-time competition he was signed by DJR Team Penske to co-drive alongside Scott McLaughlin for the Bathurst 1000.[8]
The pair finished 5th behind other DJR Car of Fabian Coulthard and Tony D'Alberto
In 2012, Slade joined Erebus Motorsport for its Bathurst 12 Hour campaign, driving the team's Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. Along with Jeroen Bleekemolen, Peter Hackett and Bret Curtis, he finished the race in second position. He once again entered the race with Erebus in 2013, finishing in sixth position with Lee Holdsworth and Peter Hackett. In 2016, he competed in the event once again, this time in a McLaren 650S GT3 with Tony Walls, Matt Campbell and Warren Luff. Slade has also appeared as a guest driver at the annual Pro-Am event of the Australian Carrera Cup Championship on multiple occasions.
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