July 25, 2016 | General

ANOTHER WIN FOR AUSSIE TCM MUSCLE

THE CONTINUED resurgence of the Aussie Muscle Car in Touring Car Masters competition has been underlined by a recent poll conducted by Australian motorsport website speedcafe.com.

Designed to find the most popular car in the TCM field the Falcon GTHO edged out the Torana A9X for the top spot in the week-long poll that generated more than 4800 votes.

The poll victory for the Aussie-built cars underlines a remarkable period of success for the locally-built metal in TCM’s last two seasons.

Thanks in part to John Bowe’s decision to switch to a Holden Torana at the start of last year Aussie-built cars have now won 22 of the last 39 TCM races.

Prior to the 2015 season they had won just 20 of the first 183 races – a remarkable turnaround driven by Bowe and the likes of Steven Johnson Wayne Mercer and Andrew Fisher this year in their Falcon GTHOs. 

Spurred on by Steven Johnson on social media more than 900 votes went the way of the Aussie-built Falcon GTHO with Jason Gomersall’s new Torana hatch less than 100 votes behind at the conclusion of the polling.

The Falcon XA-XB hardtop was ranked third just 22 votes in front of the always popular ’69-’70 model Ford Mustang that has dominated the category since it’s inception.

The Holden Torana SL/R 5000 was fifth with Jim Richards’ Falcon Sprint Cam Tilley’s Valliant Pacer the ’64-’68 Ford Mustang range the AMC Javelin and the Chrysler Charger completing the top-10.

Despite being the second most successful car in TCM history the ’68-’69 Chevrolet Camaro only gained the 11th most votes in the poll.

Meanwhile Johnson has vowed to return to the series at Phillip Island this September despite not racing at his home round at the weekend.

Engine dramas sidelined the GTHO on Friday afternoon and despite two offers from rival teams a replacement engine was unable to be fitted to the Falcon in time.

Johnson dropped from second to fourth in the ProMaster standings however remains in title calculations despite dropping 167 points behind John Bowe.

“I really feel for Steve and Olga Makarios and the whole Synergy race team as well as our great sponsors and fans who have been behind us all the way” Johnson posted on Facebook. 

“Sorry i couldn’t be out there today putting on a show in the old girl at my home track. We will be back stronger than ever at our next round Phillip Island.”

TCM gets back on track at Phillip Island this September 9 10 and 11.