EXCLUSIVE: Driver reveals mistake that 'looked amateur' provoked team owner's fiery garage spray

PremiAir Nulon Racing driver Tim Slade has lifted the lid on the controversial incident that prompted Erebus team boss Barry Ryan to visit his team's garage during the Bathurst 1000 on Sunday.

Ryan was caught on camera walking away from the PremiAir Nulon Racing garage with Fox Sports reporter Chad Neylon telling the broadcast that Ryan had "sprayed the entire engineering team".

Speaking to Wide World of Sports on Monday, Slade, the driver whose actions raised the ire of Ryan, revealed that he hadn't been told about the garage incident until well after the racing had finished on Sunday.

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"I didn't know that Barry came up to our garage until someone messaged me about it last night," he said.

"After I found out about the situation with Jack, [I realised] it probably looked a bit amateur and stupid on my part.

"I probably would have reacted exactly the same way as Jack and Barry — it's just the heat of the moment stuff."

The Ryan incident occurred after Slade failed to let Erebus driver Jack Le Brocq through as he tried to make up time on Will Brown in third place.

Le Brocq was stuck behind the 22nd-placed Slade on laps 127 and 128, with Slade unaware that he was being lapped.

With Le Brocq held up and losing ground on Brown, he became increasingly frustrated on the team radio.

As the pair climbed the mountain, Supercars legend Mark Skaife indicated that Le Brocq was "resting the bumper bar" on Slade's Chevy Camaro to send a clear warning.

But despite Le Brocq and Erebus' complaints, race control deemed that Slade would not receive a blue flag to order him aside because of a change to the championship's rules.

"It's bullshit," Le Brocq said over the team radio after being blocked on the inside by Slade.

That's when Ryan wandered over to the PremiAir Nulon Racing garage to vent his spleen.

"I went down and saw Barry after the race. He was all good," Slade said.

"At this stage, I had no idea what had played out [in the garage] but I just said, 'Sorry'.

"I apologised and told him what the situation was. I sent Jack a message as well which said, 'Sorry for holding you up there'.

"Barry was fine and Jack was as well."

Having come out of the pits ahead of Le Brocq earlier in the race, Slade assumed that he and Le Brocq were again fighting for position.

"I didn't get any blue flags and I wasn't told that [Le Brocq] was going to go a lap up on us until two laps after I came out of the pits," he said.

"After a pit stop, or anytime throughout a race, you don't want to give up any positions, but especially when you come out of the pits on a fresh tyre.

"Two laps later I said to my guys, 'Well, that was a waste of time doing that because you hurt your own tyres from being aggressive when it went from cold out of the pits, and also we cost ourselves time defending him for no reason.

"We didn't break any rules but if I knew the situation was, I would have let him pass straight away because we weren't in the same race."

Le Brocq eventually got past Slade on the inside at 'The Chase' before continuing with his race. He finished in 8th place alongside co-driver Jayden Ojeda.

Ryan was probed earlier in the year around allegations he subjected a journalist, whom he invited into Erebus' garage, to an attempted "public humiliation".

The Slade misunderstanding was far from the only incident involving slow cars during the Great Race with James Moffat left fuming following a near-miss as he went to lap Matt Chahda in last place.