Despite missing a round earlier this season, John Bowe is now well and truly back in contention for the Touring Car Masters title after a dominant weekend in Sydney.
Bowe swept the three races aboard Garry O’Brien’s Holden Torana, leading all but one lap from the three eight lap heats.
Having lost the rolling start to Eddie Abelnica’s more powerful Ford Falcon in Race 2, the wily Tasmanian would not be trumped in the final.
Abelnica initially slotted into second place but was tapped into a spin by Neil Crompton’s Ford Mustang at Turn 2.
That allowed Jason Gomersall to jump to the runner-up spot, leading to the first Holden one-two in TCM history.
Mark King got the better of Tony Karanfilovski to take third in both the race and the round aboard his Chevrolet Camaro.
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An improving Jim Richards secured fifth in Race 3 from Glenn Seton, Paul Freestone and the recovering Abelnica, whose result was enough to retain second for the round.
Crompton limped home 15th after pitting to replace front tyres flat-spotted in a mid-race mistake at Turn 2.
Faring even worse was Andrew Miedecke, who pitted on the opening lap after contact with the back of Freestone’s Camaro in the Turn 2 concertina.
The results see Richards move to the top of the series standings with 811 points ahead of erstwhile leader Miedecke on 801 and the charging Bowe on 774.
“If ever there was a track other than Winton made for the Torana it was this one,” Bowe told Speedcafe.com after a day that had seen fellow competitors gather to pay tribute to his 1,000 starts milestone.
“I’d honestly not even given the title a thought after missing Symmons Plains. That’s why I’d agreed to drive the Torana, which was an unknown quantity when we jumped in it.
“It’s not a big deal for me one way or the other, but if it’s there to be won we’ll do our best to get it done for Garry and his team.”
Still working to improve the handling of his AMC Javelin to match its straightline speed, Richards is also typically relaxed on his title chances.
“I won’t be trying any harder or any less now that we’re leading,” Richards said, having qualified back in ninth for Saturday’s opening race.
“We’re here to have fun and we’re hoping this thing will go well at Bathurst. It’s got an unusual front suspension that we’re continuing to develop. This weekend we made a lot of changes and made real progress.”
Despite a miserable weekend, Miedecke was upbeat about his improved pace in the final race.
“It’ll be really interesting from here because we’re coming to some tracks that won’t suit the Torana so much,” he said.
“We were going so badly this weekend I was starting to doubt myself a bit, but we found that it had been binding in the rear end.
“In that final race the car was as quick as it was in qualifying, which was encouraging.”
Crompton was meanwhile left to reflect on a mixed debut in the series, which came as a one-off at the invitation of Bowe.
“I was following JB down there and Eddie was on the outside, but it’s a two apex corner and he came down,” explained Crompton of the opening lap incident.
“Whether I was far enough up or not is something the umpire needs to look at, but I couldn’t have been any further to the left.
“That lost us some spots and I was just over driving after that and was too greedy under brakes and locked both fronts. That’s the highs and lows of motor racing.”
Bowe is now working to secure enough backing to return Steven Johnson to the wheel of the Mustang for the final two rounds of the season at Bathurst and Phillip Island.
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