Slade joins S5000 field for Tasmania

Slade will join title-winning squad Team BRM for the Race Tasmania event alongside reigning Gold Star winner Joey Mawson and Kaleb Ngatoa.

It will mark a return to open-wheelers for the two-time Supercars race winner, who competed in Australian Formula Ford and Formula 3 earlier in his career.

He even worked with Team BRM during his brief stint in F3.

Slade will take part in this Thursday's official test day at Symmons Plains ahead of practice on Friday and three races across Saturday and Sunday.

"Any time you get an opportunity to jump into a cool racing car, you grab it!" said Slade.

"The guys at Team BRM and I go back a long way so it's great to be able to put this together and get back in an open-wheel car. It's been quite a while but I'm really looking forward to the challenge.

"S5000 has been very competitive and the guys at the front are all strong so I'm looking forward to getting amongst it.

"The team won the championship last year so I know they are up to the job, and I'm not going to there to just drive around. I want to race, be competitive and contend, so that's the goal."

Team BRM boss Mark Rundle welcomed Slade back to the fold.

"It's great to have Tim back in a Team BRM car, we go back a long way and with our South Aussie connection we've always remained in touch," Rundle said.

"It's definitely the longest time we've gone between a driver being in one of our cars, but it's exciting to have someone of his experience racing at a very high level join the team.

"We've got no doubts in his ability to get up to speed quickly and be a factor across the three races in Tasmania."