September 10, 2016 | General

EDDIE’S DROUGHT ENDS WITH STUNNING ISLAND WIN

 

EDDIE ABELNICA brilliantly ended a 64-race streak without a Touring Car Masters race victory thanks to a powerful performance at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit today.

Abelnica became the 9^th different winner of the 2016 season when he stormed his Melbourne’s Cheapest Cars XB Falcon hardtop to the win from fourth on the grid passing Glenn Seton Jason Gomersall and John Bowe to do the job in a cracking race.

It was the popular Melbournian’s first win since Bathurst in 2013 and the first win for a Falcon Coupe since the final round of the same year.

Today’s race had three different leaders across its 10-lap duration and included conditions that changed from dry at the start to mildly damp mid-race.

Starting on the front row Bowe and Gomersall battled in the opening laps swapping the lead on several occasions in their two Holden Torana’s before Gomersall was able to open a small lead on lap four.

The same lap saw Andrew Fisher pull to a halt at the exit of turn one bringing out the Safety Car while the Jesus Racing Falcon was recovered.

Gomersall lead on the restart however was quickly passed by Bowe who was revelling in the dicey conditions in his Wilson Security SLR 5000.  

The pair continued to battle for the following lap and ran side-by-side into turn one on the eighth of ten laps Bowe holding the ascendency right up to the exit of turn two – where he ran wide and surrendered the lead to Gomersall.

Unfortunately the A9X driver would only hold the top spot for two more turns – understeering wide at turn four and handing the lead to Abelnica who had also powered past Bowe when he ran wide.  

After three lead changes in the one lap the big Falcon was never headed from there and powered to victory ahead of Bowe and Glenn Seton – who ran quietly in the top four for the entire race.

Adam Bressington finished an outstanding fourth in the Whiteline Racing / Fabre Chevrolet Camaro with Gomersall ultimately fifth following his trip off the road at Honda.

Brett Youlden stormed through from 10^th on the grid to sixth at the finish shaded to the line by Steven Johnson (Falcon GTHO) and Jim Richards’ AMC Javelin.

Tony Karanfilovski and Leo Tobin completed the top-10 in what was arguably one of the races of the season.

Fisher was the only non-finisher while Keith Kassulke was an unfortunate non-starter following an engine drama in qualifying.

Earlier in qualifying Bowe secured his third pole of the year with a record 1m39.83s lap while Jason Gomersall qualified second for the fourth straight round this year.

Glenn Seton and Eddie Abelnica lined up on the second row with Adam Bressington Jim Richards Steve Johnson Andrew Fisher Mark King and Brett Youlden completing the top-10.

The Touring Car Masters field will tackle a further two races on Sunday’s Shannons Nationals program at Phillip Island both to be streamed live via the TCM website thenationals.com.au and the MotorsportsTV app.

RACE REPLAY – FACEBOOK LIVE FEED:

 

RACE 1 RESULTS – PHILLIP ISLAND

Pos Car  Competitor/Team                Driver                   Vehicle              Cap   CL Laps     Race.Time Fastest...Lap1    48  Melbourne's Cheapest Cars      Eddie Abelnica (Vic)     Ford Falcon XB       5800       10    21:29.6504   2 1:41.4566 2    18  Wilson Security / PAYCE        John Bowe (Vic)          Torana SLR 5000      5047       10    21:30.1502  10 1:41.8152 3    30  Thunder Road Racing Aust.      Glenn Seton (Qld)        Mustang Coupe        5000       10    21:30.6210   2 1:41.3317R4    95  Whiteline Transport Racing / F Adam Bressington (NSW)   Chev Comaro SS       5800       10    21:30.7086  10 1:41.4166 5    35  iseek Racing                   Jason Gomersall (Qld)    Torana SLR 5000      5000       10    21:31.4741   2 1:41.4276 6    56  Gabriel Shock Absorbers/ PIARC Brett Youlden (Vic)      Monaro GTS CoupeHQ   5800       10    21:33.5225   2 1:42.1471 7    17  Synergy Race Engines           Steve Johnson (Qld)      Falcon XY GTHO       5800       10    21:35.5991   7 1:43.0444 8     2  Shannons Insurance             Jim Richards (Vic)       Javelin              5890       10    21:36.0182   9 1:41.9262 9    88  TIFS Warehousing & Distributio Tony Karanfilovski (NSW) Mustang Trans Am     5800       10    21:43.0442  10 1:44.1898 10   46  THD Motorsport                 Leo Tobin (Vic)          Boss Mstang          5810       10    21:49.6281   2 1:45.3587 11    4  Skye Sands                     Rusty French (Vic)       Mustang Fastback     5800       10    21:52.7664  10 1:44.7711 12   74  Lyndways Builders              Wayne Mercer (Vic)       Falcon XY GT HO      5800       10    21:54.9312   2 1:45.7530 13   12  Giraffe Civil Contracting      Adam Garwood (Tas)       Torana A9X Hatchback 5000       10    21:55.2390   8 1:45.1376 14   85  Whiteline Transport Racing     Mark King (Qld)          Chev Camaro RS       5800       10    22:20.5890   3 1:44.0579 15   22  Aussie Muscle Car Run / PRT    Graham Stewart (SA)      Monaro GTS Coupe     5800       10    22:38.4623   7 1:53.3735 16   19  Tincone Industrial Services    Darren Beale (Qld)       Monaro GTS Coupe     5800       10    22:41.4531  10 1:53.4162 DNF   9  Jesus Racing                   Andrew Fisher (NSW)      Falcon XY GGTHO      5800        3     5:13.5988   2 1:42.9032