Joel Heinrich leads the Touring Car Masters round in Darwin

Unlike Friday’s reverse grid Trophy Race, Race 1 of Touring Car Masters was off qualifying with Steve Johnson on pole. He took the Russell Hancock Ford Mustang straight to the front and led throughout.

Ryan Hansford in the Multi Spares Holden Torana A9X slotted into second from the second row of the grid and held off Heinrich for two laps, before the latter took the Whiteline Racing Chev Camaro ahead.

Fourth place went to Adam Garwood (Holden Commodore VB) who was clear of the dice for fifth. Jim Pollicina (Torana) was able to regather fifth after he was out braked by Marcus Zukanovic (Ford Falcon XD) at Turn 1 and then ran wide on exit.

Then followed Scott Cameron (Camaro) ahead of Jamie Tilley (Mustang) and Danny Buzadzic (Torana) after those two had a clash out of Turn 1.

Hansford would start out of eighth for Race 2 after a 15s penalty for passing under yellow flags. Johnson led from the outset, from Heinrich, Garwood, Zukanovic, Tilley and Buzadzic. Pollicina had a great start and was third into Turn 1 but on the outside and lost several places.

Johnson withstood Heinrich’s challenge for four laps before he pulled off a successful move at Turn 1. Hansford was on the charge, he moved to fourth and then passed Garwood before he mounted a challenge for second.

It came down to a desperate move at Turn 1 where he slipped down the inside of Johnson and spun in the middle of the corner. Johnson took avoiding action and Garwood took advantage to take and finish second.

Tilley finished fourth behind Johnson and ahead of Buzadzic, Hansford, Andrew Fisher (Torana) who didn’t start the earlier race, Pollicina, Tony Karanfilovski (Mustang) and Cameron while Zukanovic dropped to 13th.

In the second race for Combined Sedans, made up mainly by locals with just a couple of interstaters, Tim Playford steered his Mazda RX3 to a comprehensive win. Steve Johnstone (Holden Commodore VP) came from 12th to second while Graeme Wilkinson (Ford Escort) edged out Rod Jessup (Commodore VT) at the flag after he held fourth for most of the race.

Ryan Robson was fifth and the best of the Commodore Cup cars, clear of class rival David Ling who battled Craig Wright (Escort) and Geoff Cowie (Commodore) throughout. The finished ahead of Scotty Taylor (Holden Torana A9X). Kade Davey beat Zac Hannon to take Excel honours while Peter Anderson headed the HQ Holdens.