Second XD joins Winton Touring Car Masters field

A second XD Falcon will be raced in this weekend’s third round of the 2019 Paynter Dixon Touring Car Masters season at Winton Motor Raceway.

The Gambolds will make a return to the series after a short-lived debut last year at Sandown, joining TCM regular Marcus Zukanovic as XD competitors.

Dramas during qualifying saw the Damien Gambold driven-entry withdrawn early at the Melbourne circuit last September, but he and father Noel have since put the car through several days of testing and sprint events at Winton.

While the car will still run in the Invited class, owing to a minor deviation from regulations concerning the width of the rear wheels, Damien Gambold is confident of a far more competitive showing.

“We’ve done two rounds of the sprints at Winton this year just sort of testing the car and trialling out a few different suspension parts,” he told Speedcafe.com.

“The last one we did, which was around a couple of weeks ago, we had a really good run where the car had no faults and ran its best ever time by a long way, so we’re really happy with it at the moment.

“I’ve only ever really raced at Winton and Sandown, Sandown only very limited, whereas Winton’s where I’ve been racing and testing for the past probably nine years now.

“Obviously Winton brings the lack of horsepower (disadvantage) back a lot, it becomes more about handling, so it’s really going to even the field out a bit and certainly we’re going to be a lot more competitive than what we would be at Sandown.”

A 22-car entry list has been released by TCM organisers, headlined by series leader Steven Johnson, who continues in a 1969 Ford Mustang Fastback but is himself set to usher another XD into the field later in the year.

Another member of a famous racing family, Aaron Seton, will also join the grid in a Mustang, which will carry the same #30 plate that many of father Glenn’s Falcons did.

Danny Buzadzic, cousin of Zukanovic, will make his debut in an A9X Torana, while two IROC Challenge-specification Porsche 911s are back in the field in the hands of Sven Burchartz and Rohan Little.

Rob Hackwood and the Wellpro Racing team has managed to rebuild their Pontiac Firebird after a major crash last time out at Phillip Island.

TCM sessions will be spread evenly across the three days of the Truck Assist Winton SuperSprint, with Practice today at 1025 local time/AEST and Qualifying closing out the day’s competitive track action from 1515.

Entry list: Round 3, Winton Motor Raceway