Despite second overall at the final round of Gulf Western Oil Touring Car Masters, Steve Johnson had more than enough points to win his fourth title on the streets of Adelaide.
TCM stalwart John Bowe made his exit from a fulltime drive in the category at the wheel of Jim Pollicina’s Holden Torana Hatchback.
“To come to this car which had only had one reverse grid race win, and this team and win four races at Bathurst last year, win here as well and then have seven out of nine wins this year is pretty cool,” Johnson said.
“We were pushing hard as we have done all year, would have been nice to finish with a full distance or at least a green flag finish. Not only for myself, but for John Bowe for his final run and for the whole Hancock racing team.
“There was a bit more going on at (the last round) Bathurst than people know about. My health wasn’t great, I had pneumonia, and I also has a respiratory virus which basically deflated one of my lungs. I literally couldn’t breathe at Bathurst.
“I kept that pretty quiet, I didn’t want many people to know about that. I wasn’t in a good way, but I just did what I needed to do to try and get some points.
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“We came to Adelaide with the championship lead, and I still wasn’t great this weekend. I was starting to puff out again, but I was a lot better than at Bathurst. I was a least able to race and put up a bit of a fight and I was going to give it everything in the last race but didn’t get that opportunity.”
Johnson rates this championship win. In the past he won in a proven car, the Ford Mustang that had won championship with Bowe and felt that it was the car more than the driver.
“They said the same when we drove the XY that Tony Karanfilovski had, that it wouldn’t win races and we ended up winning races in it. Then the XD we built which took awhile to sort out, and we were winning races in the end.”
The last for the season was a letdown as it culminated behind the Safety Car after New Zealander Colin Meadows crashed his Chev Camaro at Turn 8. Joel Heinrich (Chev Camaro) took the chequered flag ahead of Johnson and Pro Am winner Cameron Tilley (Valiant Pacer) crossed the line third.
They were followed by Adam Garwood (Holden Commodore), Andrew Fisher (Torana), and Ryan Hansford who survived a Turn 8 wall hit when second. He retained second in the championship and placed in front of Marcus Zukanovic (Ford Falcon XD), Karanfilovski (Mustang) and Geoff Fane (Camaro).
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