June 20, 2015 | General

IT’S THE JOHNSON & BOWE SHOW IN DARWIN

STEVEN JOHNSON and John Bowe put on a show in race one of the ENZED Touring Car Masters in Darwin – swapping the lead twice in a great opening race.

Having started from second on the grid Johnson won from Bowe with Andrew Miedecke and Jim Richards following them home in close company – the four getting the flag line astern.

Johnson led from the race start heading Bowe and Miedecke into the opening corner as the field got away cleanly.

Greg Crick was the early mover moving from fifth to fourth in the opening two corners and then challenging Miedecke for third at turn five – however the big Charger ran wide on the exit of the corner and dropped to ninth at the end of the opening lap.

Polesitter Bowe wrestled the lead away from Johnson on the start of lap four passing down the inside at turn one to assume the lead.

He set a new TCM lap record (1m13.8833s) on lap four as he tried to extend his lead however Johnson continued to apply the pressure and re-passed his teammate (and car owner) to grab the top spot back two laps later as the pair ran side-by-side down the 1.1km-long front straight.

Now joined by Andrew Miedecke and Jim Richards Bowe continued to apply pressure to the rear bumper of Johnson’s Mustang for the remainder of the race however couldn’t make an impression and ultimately settled for second.

With Miedecke third and Richards fourth Jason Gomersall moved to fifth place mid-race when he passed Gavin Bullas’ Ford Mustang – ultimately finishing strongly in that position.

Bullas limped to sixth place with smoke trailing his PRA Ford Mustang while Cameron Tilley stormed his six-cylinder Pacer to seventh place from ninth on the grid.

Keith Kassulke Tony Karanfilovski and Wayne Mercer completed the top 10.

Greg Crick ultimately finished 12^th in the Mopar Charger behind the similarly recovering Andrew Fisher.

Mark King was running strongly inside the top-10 before a spin at turn one dropped him down the order finishing one spot ahead of Eddie Abelnica’s XB Falcon.

Two further races complete the ENZED Thunder in the Valley this weekend with both to be shown live on FOX Motorsport Channel 506 on FOXTEL.

Race two commences at 12:20pm on Sunday and race three at 4:10pm.

MORE STORIES:

| TCM Management hails superb Bowe Torana pole
| Bowe narrowly grabs seventh Darwin TCM pole position

RACE 1 RESULTS – HIDDEN VALLEY

Pos Car  Competitor/Team                Driver                   Vehicle              Cap   CL Laps     Race.Time Fastest...Lap1    17  Payce/Wilson Security          Steven Johnson (QLD)     Ford Mustang TransAm 5800       10    12:28.1113   2 1:14.0013r2    18  Dunlop Super Dealers/Wilson Se John Bowe (VIC)          Torana SLR 5000      5800       10    12:28.6464   4 1:13.8833R3    95  Whiteline Transport Racing/Lub Andrew Miedecke (NSW)    Chevrolet Camaro SS  5800       10    12:28.8644   2 1:13.9082r4     2  Shannons Insurance             Jim Richards (VIC)       AMC Javelin          5890       10    12:29.9494   8 1:13.8910r5    35  iseek Racing                   Jason Gomersall (QLD)    Torana SLR 5000      5047       10    12:39.6015   7 1:14.5753r6    16  Rain City Racing               Gavin Bullas (VIC)       Ford Mustang Fastbac 5800       10    12:50.7177   2 1:14.9532r7    60  Glennan's Transport            Cameron Tilley (NSW)     Valiant Pacer        4390       10    12:51.3362   4 1:15.9045 8    52  Outbound Racing/wheels.com.pg  Keith Kassulke (QLD)     Ford Falcon XB Coupe 5800       10    12:53.8406   6 1:15.9674 9    88  TIFS - Warehousing & Distribut Tony Karanfilovski (NSW) Ford Mustang Trans A 5800       10    12:59.4703   6 1:16.1124 10   74  Lyndways Builders/Mick Webb's  Wayne Mercer (VIC)       Ford Falcon XY GTHO  5800       10    13:01.5354  10 1:16.6592 11    9  Jesus Racing                   Andrew Fisher (NSW)      Ford Falcon XY GTHO  5800       10    13:01.9926   9 1:15.8234 12   75  Mopar Performance              Greg Crick (TAS)         Chrysler Charger E55 5570       10    13:04.0730   5 1:14.4310r13    7  calga.biz                      Bill Pye (NSW)           Chevrolet Camaro     5800       10    13:07.7250   8 1:15.6110r14   99  Outbound Racing/Treloar Roses  Garry Treloar (VIC)      Holden HQ Monaro     5810       10    13:07.7407   7 1:17.0013 15   10  Sunliner RV                    Tony Hunter (VIC)        Chevrolet Monza 2+2  5000       10    13:09.8590   3 1:17.4876 16   85  Whiteline Transport Racing/Kin Mark King (QLD)          Chevrolet Camaro RS  5800       10    13:19.8462   9 1:15.8219r17   48  Darwin Cheapest Cars           Eddie Abelnica (VIC)     Ford Falcon XB Coupe 5800       10    13:37.8875   6 1:15.7766r18   15  Hercules Engines               Cameron Mason (NSW)      Chevrolet Camaro     5800       10    13:48.9052   8 1:16.3771 DNF  46  THD Motorsport                 Leo Tobin (VIC)          Holden HQ Monaro     5810