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BOWE AND JOHNSON ON CLIPSAL 500 FRONT ROW
JOHN BOWE edged out Steven Johnson to score his seventh Clipsal 500 pole position today in qualifying for round one of the 2017 Touring Car Masters series.
Bowe’s best of 1m28.87s was 0.3 seconds quicker than Johnson as the pair set up a potentially classic season opener tomorrow.
Today’s effort was Bowe’s seventh pole at the Adelaide venue and continued his streak of starting on the front row every time he competes in the category at the famous street circuit.
As is his tradition Bowe punched out his fastest time on his third lap before retreating to pit lane.
Johnson was lucky to even qualify after a burst oil line sidelined his Team Johnson Ford Mustang mid-way through the 20-minute session and just moments after he had jumped to second place.
The Ford was forced to miss the second practice session earlier in the day due to the same issue the team hastily making repairs prior to qualifying to enable Johnson to at least make the circuit.
His 1m28.9274s lap was good enough for second grid banking the time just before the line failed again and forced him back to pit lane.
Ryan Hansford qualified third on his debut in the category the Multispares-supported Holden Torana having been fast since the first practice session on Thursday morning.
Despite having just 30-laps of experience in the car under his belt at a pre-event test Hansford was quickly on the pace in the yellow and blue Torana run by notable Queenslander Brett Peters.
A late charge from Adam Bressington saw him haul his No. 95 Whiteline Racing Chevrolet Camaro to fourth place late in the session: The New South Wales driver picking up his strong form from where he left off in 2016.
The strong result was also a reward for Whiteline Racing on their home turf – the long-term Adelaide-based TCM outfit based in the city’s Northern suburbs.
Andrew Fisher will start race one fifth in his brand-new Ford Falcon GTHO the stunning qualifying performance just reward for the team’s more than 12-month long build program.
Fisher edged out BigMate Racing’s Jason Gomersall (Torana A9X) on the third row while the flying Anglomoil Valliant Pacer of Cameron Tilley was seventh.
Adam Bressington’s teammate Mark King qualified eighth Jim Richards ninth in the Shannons AMC Javelin and Brett Youlden 10th in his HQ Monaro GTS 350.
Nine different models were represented in the top-10 qualifying positions during qualifying today.
Sven Burchartz was the first of the IROC Challenge Porsche runners South Aussies Bernie Stack and Manny Palyaris second and third respectively.
The IROC Challenge cars will start tomorrow’s race separately running their own grid behind the main TCM pack for the race one rolling start.
Today’s running wasn’t without drama: Cameron Mason bringing an early end to the qualifying session when an apparent oil line drama saw fluid spilled on his rear tyres.
After surviving a spin at turn nine he then spun again at turn 11 whilst trying to return to the paddock – impacting the tyres and bringing out the red flag.
Earlier in practice open-wheel star Thomas Randle was taken out of the event almost before it even began: caught in the oil from another car on the high-speed entry to turn one where he impacted the tyre barriers in the Senna chicane.
Unfortunately the damage to the Skye Sands Mustang was too much to repair to return it to action this weekend.
Local favourites Greg Keene and Amanda Sparks both suffered engine issues in their respective Porsche 911RSs casting doubt on their participation for the remainder of the weekend.
This year marks the 10th visit to the Clipsal 500 Adelaide for the Touring Car Masters Series – and in the nine previous visits the driver to score pole has gone on to win the first race on only four occasions.
Race 1 will be contested over 10 laps on Friday March 3 starting at 1:55pm local time. The race will be shown live on FOX Sports.
QUALIFYING RESULTS: ROUND 1 ADELAIDE
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Pos Car Competitor/Team Driver Vehicle Cap CL Laps Fastest...Lap Gap1 18 Wilson Security / PAYCE John Bowe (Vic) Holden Torana SL/R 5 5047 4 3 1:28.6706* 2 17 WM Waste / Illusion Gas Log Fi Steve Johnson (Qld) Ford Mustang Fastbac 5800 4 4 1:28.9724 0:00.30183 6 Multispares Racing Ryan Hansford (Qld) Holden Torana SL/R 5 5000 7 4 1:29.5088 0:00.83824 95 Whiteline Racing / Fabre Austr Adam Bressington (NSW) Chevrolet Camaro SS 5800 7 6 1:30.0467 0:01.37615 9 Jesus Racing Andrew Fisher (NSW) Ford Falcon XY GTHO 5800 6 4 1:30.3591 0:01.68856 35 Bigmate Racing Jason Gomersall (Qld) Holden Torana 5000 5 3 1:30.5453 0:01.87477 60 Glennan Transport / ANGLOMOIL Cameron Tilley (NSW) Valiant Pacer 4390 6 3 1:30.8067 0:02.13618 85 Whiteline Racing / King Spring Mark King (Qld) Chevrolet Camaro RS 5800 6 3 1:30.8301 0:02.15959 2 Shannons Insurance Jim Richards (Vic) AMC Javelin 5890 7 2 1:30.9977 0:02.327110 56 Wasp Steering & Suspension Brett Youlden (Vic) Holden Monaro GTS 6000 6 3 1:31.1475 0:02.476911 28 Speedgas / Tilley Auto Garage Brad Tilley (NSW) Ford Mustang Coupe 4735 5 4 1:31.3472 0:02.676612 88 TIFS - Warehousing & Distribut Metodia Karanfilovsk NSW Ford Mustang Trans A 5800 6 4 1:31.5089 0:02.838313 12 Giraffe Civil Contracting Adam Garwood (TAS) Holden Torana SL/R 5 5047 7 5 1:31.5794 0:02.908814 3 Hercules Engines Steve Mason (NSW) Ford Mustang Fastbac 5000 5 4 1:32.1192 0:03.448615 90 Kalus Kenny Interlex / Werks Sven Burchartz (Vic) Porsche 911 IROC 3600 7 4 1:32.1529 0:03.482316 8 Lady Luck Racing Terry Lawlor (NSW) Ford Mustang Coupe 5000 5 4 1:32.2871 0:03.616517 74 Lyndways Builders Wayne Mercer (Vic) Ford Falcon XY GTHO 5800 6 4 1:32.3156 0:03.645018 46 THD Motorsport Leo Tobin (Vic) Ford Boss Mustang 5000 5 5 1:34.0346 0:05.364019 38 Gawler Self Storage Bernie Stack (SA) Porsche 911 IROC 3600 7 4 1:34.8744 0:06.203820 97 John's Furniture Removals Allen Boughen (Qld) Mercury Comet 5000 7 5 1:39.2788 0:10.608221 91 SA Structural Manny Palyaris (SA) Porsche 911 IROC 3200 7 5 1:39.9092 0:11.238622 13 Mark Poole Motorsport Rory O'Neill (SA) Porsche 911 IROC 3600 6 4 1:40.8809 0:12.210323 19 Tincone Industrial Services Darren Beale (Qld) Holden Monaro GTS 5800 7 6 1:41.3885 0:12.717924 77 Red Rock Winery / Werks RRR Rohan Little (Vic) Porsche 911 IROC 3600 4 4 1:45.4130 0:16.742425 7 Wisely Motorsport Bob Wisely (Qld) Holden Torana SL/R 5 5000 6 2 1:53.3674 0:24.6968
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