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Johnson flies to Bathurst pole
In his Full Throttle Custom Garage Ford Falcon XD, Steve Johnson was the fastest in qualifying for the final round of the Gulf Western Oils Touring Car Masters at Mt Panorama.
Johnson’s best lap was a stunning 2 minutes 16.2436 second flyer which only barely missed his own existing TCM qualifying record at Mount Panorama.
It was Johnson’s 19th TCM pole and his first in the Falcon, and first since the 2019 Sandown finale’.
RESULTS: TCM Qualifying
For most of the session it appeared that it would be a XD front row shutout, with Marcus Zukanovic second fastest after topping earlier practice in his Action Motor Industries Falcon.
But just as the session concluded Ryan Hansford (Multispares Holden Torana A9X) split the Fords to grab a spot on the front row.
The fourth best time went to George Miedecke debuting in the category aboard the Whiteline Racing 1969 Chev Camaro. He finished ahead of Dean Lillie and John Bowe in their Toranas, and his team mate Adam Bressington (’70 Camaro).
Next were the Mustangs piloted by Jason Tilley and Cam Mason, Gerard McLeod (Holden Commodore), Tony Karanfilovski (Mustang), Danny Buzadzic and Jim Pollicina, both in Toranas.
Rounding out the entries were Brad Tilley and Andrew Fisher in Ford Falcon XY GTs, Peter Burnitt (Torana) and Sven Burchatz (Porsche 911). Cam Tilley was the only one missing from the session after his Valiant Pacer’s oil pump drive broke in practice but is expected to join the grid for the Trophy race.
Scheduled for 8:55 am Wednesday, the Trophy race is for starting and finishing points only and will feature the top half of the qualifiers reversed for the rolling start.
The race will be shown live on Fox Sports 506 and Kayo Sports.