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JOHNSON DENIES HANSFORD POLE AT WINTON
STEVEN JOHNSON grabbed pole position for Round 3 of the Paynter Dixon Touring Car Masters series – but it wasn’t by much.
The Team Johnson Ford Mustang driver scored his third straight pole and eighth from the last 10 rounds by 0.07 seconds after bumping Ryan Hansford’s Multispares Torana from the top spot with a circuit record qualifying lap.
The Torana driver had held top spot for the opening stanza of the session and in a compelling battle for pole position with Johnson had looked in the best place to score his second career pole.
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Johnson however had other plans with his fourth lap good enough to grab pole by a tiny margin; his 1m27.8680s best a new Winton track record for the class eclipsing John Bowe’s three-year old benchmark.ÂÂ
Any hopes of Hansford improving late in the session were dashed when a passing shower took just enough life from the circuit to prevent a meaningful attempt at improvement.
It’s the second straight year that Johnson and Hansford have locked out the front row of the grid at Winton.
John Bowe languished in the bottom half of the top-10 for the early part of qualifying before his 1m28.17s flyer elevated him to third while one of the star performances came from the driver who ultimately qualified fourth.
On his first drive with Whiteline Racing and his first time back in the category for two years Adam Garwood’s very last lap of the session saw him rocket the 1970 Camaro to fourth place just three-tenths from the front row.
Jim Pollicina was fifth in his MoComm Torana while Sven Burchartz could be an ace in the pack this weekend – his Porsche 911 IROC stunning with a spot on the third row of the grid.
His lap was good enough to relegate contender Ryal Harris to the fourth row with Aaron Seton alongside him on his debut in the category.
Rob Hackwood in the rebuilt and restored Wellpro Racing Camaro was ninth while Adam Bressington was an uncharacteristic 10th.
However the top-10 were covered by just 0.66 seconds the closest spread between the 10 fastest cars in qualifying in the ten occasions TCM has visited the Victorian venue.
Eight different models were represented in the ten fastest cars showing the remarkable spread of competition within the Paynter Dixon TCM grid this year.
Markus Zukanovic qualified eleventh and Andrew Fisher 12th – just 1.1 and 1.2 seconds from pole respectively.
The remainder of the field was made up of Jeremy Gray Bruce Williams Tony Karanfilovski and Cameron Tilley in 16th.
Peter Burnett and Cameron Mason were next with Damien Gambold and Danny Buzadzic 20th on his debut of his new A9X Torana.
Rohan Little and Gary O’Brien completed the 22-cars to set times today.
The Paynter Dixon Touring Car Masters field will tackle two races on Saturday at the Truck Assist Winton SuperSprint.
The Dometic Trophy Race will – literally – mix things up at 10:05am while the Race Seven of the 2019 season proper will see the competition heat up from 2:45pm.
Both races will be live on FOX Sports 506 and Kayo Sports.
RESULTS: QUALIFYING ROUND 3
| Pos | Car | Competitor/Team | Driver | Vehicle | Time | Gap |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 1 | 17 | WM Waste / Kubota | Steve Johnson (QLD) | Mustang Fastback | 1:27.8680* |  |
| 2 | 6 | Multispares Racing | Ryan Hansford (QLD) | Holden Torana A9X | 1:27.9381 | 0:00.0701 |
| 3 | 18 | PAYNTER DIXON | John Bowe (VIC) | Holden Torana SL/R 5 | 1:28.1767 | 0:00.3087 |
| 4 | 85 | Whiteline Racing/Giraffe Civil | Adam Garwood (TAS) | Chevrolet Camaro RS | 1:28.1832 | 0:00.3152 |
| 5 | 7 | MOCOMM Motorsport Communicatio | Jim Pollicina (NSW) | Holden Torana A9X | 1:28.1986 | 0:00.3306 |
| 6 | 90 | Kalus Kenny Intelex Lawyers | Sven Burchartz (VIC) | Porsche 911 IROC | 1:28.4365 | 0:00.5685 |
| 7 | 58 | EFS 4X4 Accessories | Ryal Harris (QLD) | Chevrolet Camaro SS | 1:28.4511 | 0:00.5831 |
| 8 | 30 | Hillier Brothers/THD Motorsprt | Aaron Seton (QLD) | Ford Boss Mustang | 1:28.4797 | 0:00.6117 |
| 9 | 24 | Wellpro Racing | Robert Hackwood (QLD) | Pontiac Trans Am | 1:28.4842 | 0:00.6162 |
| 10 | 95 | Whiteline Racing / VDC | Adam Bressington (NSW) | Chevrolet Camaro SS | 1:28.5379 | 0:00.6699 |
| 11 | 71 | Centec Security Industries | Markus Zukanovic (VIC) | Ford Falcon XD | 1:29.0462 | 0:01.1782 |
| 12 | 9 | Jesus Racing | Andrew Fisher (NSW) | Ford Falcon XY GT HO | 1:29.1286 | 0:01.2606 |
| 13 | 67 | Bilstein/JMG Racing | Jeremy Gray (QLD) | Ford Capri Perana | 1:29.5552 | 0:01.6872 |
| 14 | 5 | ACDelco / Auto Action Magazine | Bruce Williams (VIC) | Holden Torana SL/R 5 | 1:29.7930 | 0:01.9250 |
| 15 | 88 | TIFS – Warehousing & Distribtn | Tony Karanfilovski (NSW) | Ford Mustang Trans A | 1:30.0320 | 0:02.1640 |
| 16 | 60 | ANGLOMOIL Lubricants/MD Steel | Cameron Tilley (NSW) | Valiant Pacer | 1:30.2752 | 0:02.4072 |
| 17 | 12 | Lighthouse Hotel-Burnett Heads | Peter Burnitt (QLD) | Holden Torana A9X | 1:31.1763 | 0:03.3083 |
| 18 | 33 | Peter Drayton Wines | Cameron Mason (NSW) | Ford Mustang Fastbac | 1:31.3238 | 0:03.4558 |
| 19 | 37 | Gambold Mechanical | Damien Gambold (VIC) | Ford Falcon XD | 1:31.6194 | 0:03.7514 |
| 20 | 3 | Western General Body Works | Danny Buzadzic (VIC) | Holden Torana A9X Ha | 1:31.7609 | 0:03.8929 |
| 21 | 77 | Red Rock Winery / Skunk Werks | Rohan Little (VIC) | Porsche 911 IROC | 1:33.0621 | 0:05.1941 |
| 22 | 8 | Bendigo Accident Repair Centre | Gary O’Brien (VIC) | Holden Monaro GTS | 1:33.8480 | 0:05.9800 |