Nulon Racing is pleased to confirm that Supercars race winner and former team owner Jonathon ‘Jono’ Webb will be Tim Slade’s co-driver for the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 in 2023.
After making his Supercars debut in 2006 at the Sandown 500 with Marcus Marshall, Webb went on to win the 2009 Super2 title before joining the main game full-time for four seasons from 2010 to 2013.
To date he has contested 154 Supercars races, with eight podiums and four wins – including a solo win at Homebush in 2010, two Gold Coast wins (2014 and 2015 with Shane van Gisbergen) and a Bathurst 1000 victory (2016 with Will Davison).
The 39-year-old is one of only two drivers to have co-driven with both McLaughlin and van Gisbergen (the other is Alex Premat) and also took out the 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour outright victory in a Tekno Autosports McLaren 650S GT3 with van Gisbergen and Alvaro Parente.
“I was thankful for the opportunity to drive a PremiAir Supercar with the Nulon Racing team at their Queensland Raceway test day in June. When the opportunity presented to join Tim for the enduros, I jumped at the chance. It’s an honour, and I look forward to contributing my best efforts to assist Tim and the Team with their Championship.” Webb said.
“I have full confidence in Tim and the Team’s ability for success at both Sandown and Bathurst. I’m sincerely grateful that Peter Xiberras and Tim Slade have granted me this opportunity.”
Slade and Webb raced alongside each other for a number of years during Webb’s full-time career.
“I’m looking forward to pairing up with Jono for this year’s enduros. Jono obviously has a wealth of experience in Supercars and has won races both as a solo driver and co driver.” Slade said.
“He did his first laps in a Gen 3 car at our last test day and felt pretty comfortable straight up which was good, plus he’ll get the opportunity to get further acquainted with the car at our Sydney ride day and pre enduro test day.”
“I think it’s great we have gone back to the traditional endurance race format with the return of the Sandown 500, it makes for a great precursor to Bathurst and I’m sure eases the nerves a little for co drivers before The Great Race!”
Webb is one of a range of drivers who have driven laps with Nulon Racing at test days this year alongside Joey Mawson, Kurt Kostecki and Matt Chanda, and showed plenty of speed in his first drive of a Gen3 Camaro in June.
“Obviously it has been widely reported that we were looking to give Joey Mawson a drive with Tim to give some young and upcoming talent a go, and we hung out as long as we possibly could to try and make that happen,” Nulon Racing Team Owner, Peter Xiberras, explained.
“Unfortunately, the bid for Mawson to be approved for a Super Licence for the events has not progressed, and so we had to make a decision and we decided to do all that we could to give Tim the best possible chance to recover some points after a difficult start to the season by partnering him with an experienced co-driver.
“Jono showed a lot of speed in his time at the wheel during our QR test day and he has proven, race-winning experience as both a co-driver and a solo driver. We are confident he will be the perfect co-driver for Tim at Sandown and Bathurst this year and we are looking forward to seeing what they can achieve together at these prestigious events.”
Nulon Racing will next be on-track with the Supercars Championship for the Sydney SuperNight event at Sydney Motorsport Park across the 28th to the 30th of July, 2023. For event information, visit www.supercars.com.au
For more information on Nulon Racing, please visit www.premiairracing.com or follow the team on its social media platforms at www.facebook.com/PremiAirRacing/, www.instagram.com/premiair_racing/, www.linkedin.com/company/premiairracing/ and www.twitter.com/premiairracing
