September 13, 2018 | General

LILLIE MAKES TCM RETURN IN MONARO

Accomplished race engineer and owner of Melbourne-based Ravage Raceworks motorsport services operation Dean Lillie will return to the driver’s seat this weekend when he competes in Round 6 of the Paynter Dixon Touring Car Masters at the RABBLE.club Sandown 500.

Lillie will drive a Holden HQ Monaro sponsored by Accelerated Excavations and Downey’s Group Australia; the car originally built by Tony Edwards and subsequently campaigned by others including Les Walmsley and Keith Kassulke is currently owned by Jim Pollicina.

While he is well-known for his engineering exploits in the Dunlop Super2 and Kumho V8 Touring Car Series Lillie has also achieved some impressive results on the track including Bathurst 12 Hour and World Time Attack class wins.

He has also made a few cameo appearances in TCM most recently in 2008 when he finished third overall at Symmons Plains aboard Gavin Bullas’ XY Falcon.

“I’m looking forward to being back behind the wheel this weekend Jim wanted the HQ to be out on the track so he’s given me the opportunity to race it†Lillie said.

“I’m in the Pro-Am class so I’ll be battling with the likes of Mark King and Aaron McGill who I raced against in production cars.

“We’ve had to do a lot of work to prepare the car for this weekend – we’ve tuned the engine installed electric power steering done some suspension work and given it a complete respray.

“We’re running the 23-degree Chev engine not the 18-degree spec of the newer cars but we think it should still be competitive.

“We’re also testing the first batch of Brypar brakes for TCM cars – they’ve provided excellent performance in the other categories where we’ve used them so we’re confident they will do the job for us.â€Â

Lillie who recently turned 40 said Touring Car Masters has always been his category of choice.

“Obviously my main focus is the engineering and mechanical work but if I had the chance to do a full season in a category it would definitely be TCM – now I’m 40 I’m old enough to be racing in it!†he joked.

“It’s a crowd-favourite category – every round the fans flock to the paddock because they love the cars and they’re cool to drive as well.

This weekend’s action consists of practice and qualifying on Friday three races on Saturday and one on Sunday.