February 28, 2018 | General

TCM’S ADELAIDE FACTS ‘N STATS

TOURING CAR MASTERS have played a big role in the 20 years of the iconic Adelaide 500.

The series has visited the Adelaide streets every year bar one since the series very first ever round in March 2007.

The subsequent ten visits and 30 races have proven to be some of the most compelling of the entire TCM schedule and with four races scheduled for the first time this weekend that is likely to continue.

Only Sydney Motorsport Park in New South Wales has held more TCM rounds than the Adelaide Parklands circuit and as such the Adelaide event has built a significant history within the category.  

Unsurprisingly defending TCM ProMasters class champion John Bowe holds a majority of the winning records in Adelaide his four round wins establishing him as the most successful driver on the circuit in TCM machinery.

Bowe also holds the record for most Clipsal 500 poles (7) most in a row (five consecutively between 2010-2015) and remarkably has started on the front row every year he has raced in the category at the circuit – only missing the first round in 2007.  

Qualifying on pole isn’t a certainty for success in Adelaide though – on four of the nine visits TCM has made to the Clipsal 500 the driver who qualified on pole position has gone on to win the first race of the weekend.

Inaugural TCM champion Steve Mason – whose son Cameron will race this year – racing legend Andrew Miedecke two-time TCM champ Gavin Bullas and last year’s victor Greg Ritter have also tasted the champagne on the Adelaide podium.

John Bowe set a new Adelaide race lap record last year (1m29.2182s) while Glenn Seton set the qualifying benchmark two years ago at 1m28.33s. The qualifying record has tumbled by 8.7 seconds since the category first raced in Adelaide in 2007 while the race record has also been slashed by a similarly impressive 7.3 seconds in the intervening decade.

Impressively the winners of the first ever TCM race in Adelaide (Brad Tilley – Falcon GTHO) and Adelaide’s first round (Gavin Bullas – Ford Mustang) are both entered for this weekend’s event.

Tilley who returns in his now iconic bright-green Falcon GTHO this weekend has an imposing record on the Adelaide streets having recorded four race victories at the venue – second only to John Bowe’s 8 and Bullas’ 6.

While the battle between GM and Ford has been remarkably competitive in racing conditions in Adelaide – Ford has won 15 races while Chevrolet has 12 and Holden 3 – Fords have tended to dominate in qualifying.

Last year was the first time that anything other than the Blue Oval had grabbed a TCM pole in Adelaide thanks to John Bowe’s flyer.

Expect the battle for pole position to be a close one though; the 2017 season saw two of the five closest ever pole-winning margins in the series’ history.

There have been 26 different winners across TCM’s 251 races and there is a good chance that number could expand this weekend – because there’s only six drivers to have scored a TCM victory on the grid this weekend.

While it is expected that Gavin Bullas John Bowe Steven Johnson Brad Tilley Mark King and Tony Karanfilovski will all be competitive – the likes of Adam Bressington Ryan Hansford Bruce Williams Cameron Tilley and Jason Gomersall are all looking for a breakthrough triumph.

ADELAIDE 500 FACT FILE:

ROUND WINNERS:

2007 – Steve Mason (Camaro)
2008 – Steve Mason (Camaro)
2009 – Gavin Bullas (Mustang)
2010 – Andrew Miedecke (Camaro)
2011 – John Bowe (Mustang)
2012 – John Bowe (Mustang)
2014 – John Bowe (Mustang)
2015 – Andrew Miedecke (Camaro)
2016 – Greg Ritter (Chevrolet Monza)
2017 – John Bowe (Holden Torana)

POLE SITTERS

2007 – Gavin Bullas (Mustang) 1m37.08
2008 – John Bowe (Camaro) 1m33.46
2009 – Gavin Bullas (Mustang) 1m31.86
2010 – John Bowe (Mustang) 1m31.46
2011 – John Bowe (Mustang) 1m31.20
2012 – John Bowe (Mustang) 1m29.71
2014 – John Bowe (Mustang) 1m29.47
2015 – John Bowe (Mustang) 1m29.83
2016 – Glenn Seton (Mustang) 1m28.33
2017 – John Bowe (Torana) 1m28.67

ADELAIDE 500 RACE WINNERS:

8 – John Bowe
6 – Gavin Bullas
5 – Andrew Miedecke
4 – Brad Tilley Greg Ritter
1 – Andrew MacLean Steve Mason Tony Karanfilovski Adam Garwood

15 – Ford
12 – Chevrolet
3 – Holden