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Garwood Splashes to Adelaide Pole
Adam Garwood has claimed the final Gulf Western Oils Touring Car Masters pole position of 2023, beating championship leader Steven Johnson by half a second in a wet qualifying session at the Adelaide Parklands Circuit.
Garwood set a 1m 40.3258s in the latter stages of the session in his Holden VB Commodore to knock the Hancock Racing Ford Mustang Trans Am off the top spot, claiming the first TCM pole for a Holden Commodore in the process.
Johnson would end up just over half a second behind the Garwood Racing Commodore, and would be the top qualifier in Pro Master.
John Bowe qualified his Rare Spares Torana A9X in third for his Touring Car Masters farewell this weekend on a 1m 40.9904s, ahead of hometown hero Joel Heinrich in the Daimler Trucks Adelaide Chevrolet Camaro RS.
Garwood would end up over three and a half seconds quicker than the second of the Pro Am runners in Cameron Tilley, who qualified in eighth outright in the Anglomoil Superior Lubricants Valiant Pacer.
Warren Trewin was the fastest Pro Sports competitor, qualifying the Holden HQ Monaro in eleventh outright for SNB Berryman Racing, three spots ahead of the top Invitational entry of Chris Meulengraaf’s Porsche IROC for Team Quartz Motorsport.
The Hamilton Asphalts Holden Torana SLR5000 of Lance Hughes was the fastest of the Invitational TCM New Zealand entries in seventeenth outright.
Qualifying was the only wet session for the 24-strong Touring Car Masters field, a stark contrast to the only practice session of the day that was run in dry conditions and was topped by Johnson’s championship rival Ryan Hansford in the Multispares Racing Holden Torana A9X.
Hansford would qualify four spots behind Johnson in sixth on the grid, almost two seconds off the pace of pole sitter Garwood, and one and a half seconds down on Johnson’s Hancock Racing Mustang.
Gulf Western Oils Touring Car Masters returns to the Adelaide Parklands Circuit tomorrow for the Trophy Race at 9:25am local time, with Race One beginning at 4:15pm tomorrow afternoon.
Both races will be broadcast live via Fox Sports 506.