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JOHNSON WINS SETON STORMS AT QR
PRE-ROUND Steven Johnson joked about the pressure of delivering results in front of his friends family and an army of Queensland fans on his return to racing in his home state this weekend in the ENZED Touring Car Masters.
Junior Johnson didn’t disappoint delivering pole position and a comprehensive race one victory in today’s Shannons Queensland Tourist Trophy opener in the Ipswich sunshine.
Johnson led from pole position set a new lap record and won comfortably in today’s race – the first of three this weekend.
PHOTO GALLERY – Click to check out the qualifying & Race 1 Gallery!
Interest in the race was focussed further back as Andrew Miedecke and John Bowe battled for the entire 12-lap duration.
Miedecke passed Bowe for second in the early running but then had to defend for the remainder as the Torana came on strong as the race progressed.
After several close moments the Camaro driver held out the Torana after a thrilling battle that lasted the entire race.
Behind them Glenn Seton stormed to fourth place in his Thunder Road Racing Team Ford Mustang – climbing from eighth on the grid.
He battled his way through several strong contenders in the top-10 early on before chasing and ultimately catching Jim Richards’ Shannons Insurance AMC Javelin.
Echoing their classic 1987 ATCC title fight the pair ran side-by-side on several occasions before a bold braking move into turn one saw Seton slip past and secure fourth spot.
With Richards fifth Keith Kassulke finished sixth Eddie Abelnica 7th Greg Crick 8th and Tony Karanfilovski 9th.
Remarkably Cameron Tilley continued his remarkable run of top-10 performances this season by finishing 10th in his Tilley Automotive Valliant Pacer.
The Sydney driver has only once finished outside the top 10 across thirteen races this season – despite only qualifying inside it on one occasion when he started 10th for race one at Darwin.
On only one occasion – Winton where he qualified and finished race one in 15th – has Tilley failed to score in the ten this year.
Charlie O’Brien finished 11th in his Pontiac Firebird and first of the Queensland TransAm runners home.
Jason Gomersall finished 12th after slipping off the road mid-race whilst battling inside the competitive top six group.
Earlier Johnson stormed to pole in qualifying edging out John Bowe by 0.2s to grab his second pole for 2015.
Johnson needed just five laps to score pole early in the session electing to sit out much of the second half of the session.
Bowe charged hard late in the session and got to within 0.2s of Johnson’s record 1m15.9050s lap but ultimately missed out on pole for only the second time in the past thirteen rounds.
Chevrolet Camaro driver Andrew Miedecke was another to edge closer to the Johnson – Bowe pair his 1m16.51s lap also well underneath the existing qualifying record at the 3.1km circuit.
Jim Richards qualified fourth thanks to a late charge from the Shannons AMC Javelin while 2013 QR Polesitter Keith Kassulke was fifth – comfortably his best starting position of the season so far.
A further two races will complete the fifth round of the 2015 ENZED Touring Car Masters tomorrow race two to start at 8:30am and the finale’ to kick off at 10:15 – with both scheduled for 12-laps in duration.
RACE ONE RESULTS – QUEENSLAND RACEWAY
Pos Car Competitor/Team Driver Vehicle Cap CL Laps Race.Time Fastest...Lap1 17 PAYCE/Wilson Security Steven Johnson (QLD) Ford Mustang Trans A 5800 12 15:39.2118 4 1:16.7815R2 95 Whiteline Transport / Lubrimax Andrew Miedecke (NSW) Chevrolet Camaro SS 5800 12 15:40.2883 3 1:17.0433r3 18 Dunlop Super/ Wilson Sec/ PAYC John Bowe (VIC) Holden Torana SL/R 5 5047 12 15:40.5851 4 1:17.0779r4 30 Thunder Road Racing Team Austr Glenn Seton (QLD) Ford Mustang Coupe 5000 12 15:45.6864 4 1:17.5456 5 2 Shannons Insurance Jim Richards (VIC) AMC Javelin 5890 12 15:46.3075 4 1:17.5927 6 52 Outbound Racing / wheels.com.p Keith Kassulke (QLD) Ford Falcon XB Coupe 5800 12 15:48.7509 4 1:18.2550 7 48 Brisbane's Cheapest Cars Eddie Abelnica (VIC) Ford Falcon XB Coupe 5800 12 15:54.7819 3 1:18.3961 8 75 Mopar Performance Greg Crick (TAS) Chrysler Charger E55 5570 12 15:58.2719 4 1:18.5059 9 88 TIFS - Warehousing & Distribut Tony Karanfilovski (NSW) Ford Mustang Trans A 5800 12 15:58.4203 3 1:18.6937 10 60 Glennan's Transport Cameron Tilley (NSW) Valiant Pacer 4390 12 16:06.2354 4 1:19.3387 11 3 Fataz Competition Engines Charlie O'Brien (QLD) Pontriac Firebitrd 5800 12 16:07.5757 3 1:19.6529 12 35 iseek Racing Jason Gomersall (QLD) Holden Torana SL/R 5 5047 12 16:07.7861 6 1:18.3892 13 20 Storage King Ian Palmer (QLD) Pontiac Trans Am 5800 12 16:11.4819 3 1:19.5438 14 15 Hercules Engines Cameron Mason (NSW) Chevrolet Camaro 5800 12 16:25.4732 3 1:20.7735 15 46 THD Motorsport Leo Tobin (VIC) Holden HQ Monaro 5810 12 16:30.5388 8 1:21.0132 16 72 Fataz Competition Engines Ian Woodward (QLD) Chevrolet Camaro 5800 12 16:32.5388 3 1:20.9454 17 25 Angliss Meats Brett Curran (QLD) Ford Shelby Fastback 5800 12 16:32.7263 4 1:21.4189 18 69 Tenkate Plant Hire Anthony Tenkate (QLD) Ford Mustang Fastbac 5800 12 16:45.9830 3 1:22.3117 19 85 Whiteline Transport/ King Spri Mark King (QLD) Chevrolet Camaro RS 5800 12 16:56.1812 3 1:18.3973 20 68 Loaders 'R' Us Alwyn Bishop (QLD) Ford Mustang 5800 11 15:41.2920 10 1:23.9559 21 22 Collins Hay Mike Collins (QLD) Ford Mustang 5000 11 16:40.1847 2 1:27.3180 DNF 99 Loaders 'R' Us Michael Uebergang (QLD) Ford Mustang Coupe 5800 5 7:03.4148 3 1:22.6203 DNF 9 Jesus Racing Andrew Fisher (NSW) Ford Falcon XY GTHO 5800 1 1:26.5460 1 1:26.5460