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Back to March 2012 Motorsports News Archive
| 03-03-2012 at 08:00: Bowe Opens 2012 with Victory | |
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Having been more than a second faster than the field through the practice sessions, and going on to carry the speed, Bowe secured his third successive pole on the streets of Adelaide. Challengers and fellow seeded drivers Miedecke, Bullas and Richards in his new Javelin, were all looking to tame the #18 Mustang and bring on a big weekend, and they would start from the front rows.
Bowe launched as the lights went green while Richards was slow off the line, Youlden going wide to avoid the accelerating Javelin. King took to Senna Chicane taking air over the curbs and Walmsley, now in the XA GT Falcon campaigned by King last season, also took to the inside through the dirt to keep clean in the trail of muscle. Abelnica didn’t make the grid, his XB Coupe experiencing an intermittent fuel delivery issue and slowing on the warm up lap to see the #48 entry park in the pits, while efforts to fix damaged Wilson’s Charger hadn’t been enough, he too went straight to the lane.
Miedecke and Bullas started their race long battle in the opening turns, going side by side through turn one as Bullas moved to second, making it a Mustang one, two. The top four began to pull away from the 25 strong field and it was clear the lap times were going to tumble, Bullas pushing hard and sliding through turn six as Miedecke regained second place.
The pack was pouncing, Stack locking the brakes on the rear of Youlden’s, bringing Pye closer to the action as Westwood GTHO took it to Keene’s fighting Porsche to take ninth. More incredible hard luck for Edwards as the SL/R 5000 headed to pit lane yet again here at the Adelaide Parklands circuit, this time with front end damage, possibly with the hydraulics, having either broken a piston or rod, and likely marking the start and end of his season.
Stack moved into eighth with Pye making the pass as the #85 Camaro once again began to billow smoke, the oil leak that has plagued the weekend seeing the Whiteline Camaro’s first DNF of the season. Pye was pressing on, moving under Youlden as he went wide into turn 14, the pair hunting the HQ of King ahead in fifth. Kassulke began closing on Keene, as Walmsley closed in and went through on Stillwell, Hunter’s HQ looking to join the action.
As Kassulke made the move under the Porsche of Keene, Stack headed to the pits on lap five as back on track Benson was driving the wheels off his HQ entry, powering through turn eight, clearly on a mission to take on the traffic. An overheating problem as the Makarios owned GTHO lost water, had Karanfilovski park the #99 with three laps to go, the priority, to save the engine and see out the weekend.
In one of the race’s best battles, Sparks and Nelson has been hard at it, right on each other from the first turns, side by side as the laps fell away, the battle ended on the final lap with contact between the pair seeing Sparks into the wall at turn six with heavy front end damage, but it had been smooth sailing for Bowe, taking the race win with a four second buffer to Miedecke in second.
“The race was good and I got a really good start”, said Bowe after the race.
“The car’s been good at each of the Clipsal 500 events – this is my third here with Mustang ‘Sally’ and she really suits the circuit.
“The car wasn’t exactly behaving the way I wanted it to earlier on, but with the V8 Supercars rubber down on track, it’s changed the surface quite a lot and changed the way the cars behave.
“Being a reigning champions and all that stuff, it doesn’t matter so much, this is all about racing as best you can, and with the win, well I can’t be any more pleased than that!” |
Reigning Touring Car Masters series title holder John Bowe has started the season in the way he was remembered from the last, taking a convincing first win of the new year in a refurbished Mustang ‘Sally’, with an extra special team member now on board, an image of great mate, the late Jason Richards, adorning the roof.
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