Wade has departed the Ford Supercars team to relocate to the United States, where he’ll work as a rear mechanic and inside rear tyre changer at Juncos Hollinger Racing.
The move follows several years at DJR where he started on the Gen3 development programme, before working as the #2 mechanic on Anton De Pasquale’s car for the last two seasons.
It also comes amid a period of significant staff turnover for DJR.
The opportunity for Wade to join JHR came via another ex-DJR staffer who opened the door for a visit to the States last April.
“There’s a guy that used to work for [DJR], Brent Blakey,” Wade told Speedcafe.
“He ended up getting an opportunity to work on the Indy Lights program at Juncos. It wasn’t really his thing but he said he could pass my details on. I got an email straight away and there were interviews and they were really keen.
“I ended up going over [to the USA] straight after New Zealand because we were overseas already. I went straight to their workshop and ended up going to the Barber Motorsports Park round with them, just observing stuff.
“It was incredible, the way they do things is totally different.
“We went back to the workshop, prepped the car and went to Mid-Ohio for a test day. I was over there for 10 days and it was incredible. They wanted me to stay but I wanted to do the right thing by DJR and finish off my time there.
“I got a contract offer around Townsville which I accepted and then it was into the lengthy process of a visa. Now that’s sorted, I’ve got a three-year deal and I get to travel the US and go racing in IndyCar.”
Wade fancies JHR as an emerging force in IndyCar, based on technical signings such as ex-F1 race engineer David Brown as technical director.
“I reckon they’re a bit of an up and coming team, I would compare them to PremiAir in Supercars,” he said.
“They don’t have the biggest budget out there because it’s still a small team, but there seems to be a willingness to invest in the right areas and have the right people. Like signing David Brown. There seems to be good people there.
“It will be interesting to bring some Supercars knowledge to the team.”
