Heinrich Camaro takes crushing TCM win

Joel Heinrich has taken a dominant win in the Touring Car Masters Race 2 at The Bend Motorsport Park.

With the starting order decided by this morning’s Race 1 results, the Holden Toranas of pole-sitter Ryan Hansford and Andrew Fisher shared the front row ahead of Steven Johnson’s Ford Mustang and Heinrich in his #95 Chevrolet Camaro.

Fisher led into Turn 1 with Heinrich on the outside wrestling with Hansford’s Torana, the pair making contact at Turn 2 as the #12 of Peter Burnitt dropped to the rear.

Fisher led from Hansford, Heinrich as Marcus Zukanovic and Danny Buzadzic battled, with the XD fourth ahead of the A9X while Steven Johnson watched on in sixth.

Zukanovic and Buzadzic swapped places on the penultimate corners, with Buzadzic taking fourth off Zukanovic at Turn 1 as the field started Lap 2.

Heinrich then stole the lead off Fisher at Turn 6, with Hansford looking to capitalize in third all over Fisher’s Holden.

Buzadzic had prevailed to sit fourth, ahead of Johnson’s Mustang with Zukanovic in sixth ahead of John Bowe.

Heinrich bolted to be more than two seconds ahead after only a handful of corners, 1.8s at the start of Lap 2 as the Camaro left the two Toranas behind him to battle – Hansford taking second off Fisher into the first corner at the start of that lap.

Heinrich posted the fastest lap as he built his lead to more than three seconds,  with the start of Lap 4 seeing Bowe nearly make the pass on Zukanovic at Turn 1, who closed the door firmly as Cameron Tilley made it a three-car battle.

Lap 5 and Johnson had closed on Buzadzic as Heinrich went even faster with a 2:00.9427 – almost a second faster than second-placed Hansford – to extend his lead to 6.9s.

At the start of the final lap, Johnson made a move as he attempted to out-drag Buzadzic on the main straight – but it was an error from Buzadzic that saw him drop the left side of the car into the dirt to spin and see Johnson pass, as the spinning Torana dropped to eighth.

The South Australian Heinrich won handsomely by 9.1s from Hansford, Fisher, Johnson, Zukanovic a car length ahead of Bowe in sixth, then Tilley, a recovering Buzadzic, Geoff Fane and Tony Karanfilovski tenth.

The TCM Series is on track for Race 3 at 11:30 local/12:00 AEST tomorrow, Sunday August 20.

Results: 2023 Gulf Western Oil Touring Car Masters – Race 2
Saturday August 19, 2023