John Bowe wasted little time in adapting to his new Holden Torana as he topped the times in Touring Car Masters practice at Winton.
Bowe grabbed headlines in the build up to this weekend’s Rare Spares Rose City Trophy by ditching his trusty Ford Mustang to pilot a Holden Torana SL/R 5000, built by Gary O’Brien’s Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars.
Despite the change of vehicle, the results remained the same with the reigning Touring Car Masters champion topping the times in both practice sessions.
His best effort came in the opening outing where he posted a 1:30.31 lap, which was 0.5s under his qualifying lap record at the venue.
The Ford Mustang of Gavin Bullas trailed Bowe by 1.6s in Practice 1, with Eddie Albenica guiding his Ford Falcon XB to third.
Bullas and Albenica assumed the same positions in the afternoon practice session.
Qualifying will take place on Saturday morning before two 10 lap races.
Kerrick Sports Sedans ace Tony Ricciardello proved untouchable in the day’s only practice session as he topped the times by a huge 2.1s over Colin Smith.
V8 Supercar driver Jack Perkins was restricted to just two laps in Darren Hossack’s Audi which left the Holden Racing Team co-driver in 12th position.
South Australia’s Roger I’Anson secured pole position for Saturday’s opening Sports Racer Series by more than half a second from factory West Race Cars driver Aaron Steer.
Mark Laucke was third fastest and will share the second row with John-Paul Drake.
Discussion about this post