Bumper Biante field in Fathers Day Muscle Car action 
A Fathers Day feast of prime Muscle Car action is set to serve up a bumper field of 31 cars battling it out for round five of the Biante Touring Car Masters, topped off with a heated Trans-Tasman grudge match at Sydneys Eastern Creek International Raceway (NSW) on 5-6 September.
After a quick turnaround from the V8 Supercar event at Ipswich (QLD) to the Muscle Car Masters in Sydney, the biggest field so far this season will pack the Eastern Creek grid for three championship points-scoring races across the Saturday and Sunday event.
Riding high on his break though Biante series victory, round-four winner Jim Richards will again be looking to make the most of updates to his Shannons Falcon Sprint and head the field to the chequered flag at the hugely popular annual Muscle Car Masters event.
Wed done a lot of work on our car before Queensland; weve got new leaf springs and a new exhaust system on it, and its the first time that somethings worked, so thats good, Jim Richards said.
The changes we made should help for the remaining rounds, I dont know if theyll give us a lot more speed, but adding the new exhaust system gave us an extra 20-odd horsepower from the motor to the tail point, which to a little engine is significant.
This class is all about entertainment, but all of us want to win were serious and weve got cars worth a couple hundred grand each, so well try as hard as we can out there.
Gentleman Jim will have his work cut out for him with reigning champion, Gavin Bullas out to make amends for his worst result of the season after finishing third in the Rain City Mustang at Queensland Raceway.
However, former 12-Hour race winner at Eastern Creek, John Bowe in the WesTrac Cat Camaro will be hoping to further capitalise on Bullas first sign of weakness in this seasons title hunt.
Bowe currently sits 104 points adrift of Bullas, but with 180 points available in each of the remaining three rounds, the gap can still be bridged and the 53-year-old Tasmanian will be using his entire arsenal of experience to reel in the series leader.
Waiting to pounce on any slip up from the leaders are third placed Drew Marget in the #17 Marget Engineering Trans Am Mustang and the green Tilleys Automotive XY GT Falcon of Brad Tilley.
New South Wales-based drivers, Tilley and 2007 Champion Steve Mason may be the wild cards, this weekend, as they use their local knowledge to wring every ounce of speed out of their machines around the challenging, fast-flowing, 3.93km Eastern Creek circuit.
Missing in action after a number of issues at Queensland Raceway, front runner Rod Wilson will be an interested spectator at Muscle Car Masters as the crew now tries to prepare the Rain City XY GTHO Falcon for a strong performance at Bathurst.
Group 2 runner-up for the past two seasons, Blackcat Racing driver Rory ONeill has finally snared the class lead for the first time since the series inception in 2007.
Its great to finally get that top spot thats why were all out here racing. Its the position Id rather be in than any other spot right now, Rory ONeill said.
Im seriously looking forward to this weekend; this is my favourite circuit in the country. The Porsches go really well around the back of the track and theres always a possibility of rain which would definitely help us.
Trevor Talbot and Graeme Cook are obviously the two main threats for the title, but Im not feeling any pressure because Im driving for consistency I think thats key to Group 2 because theres so many potential winners.
A mere 50 points separates the top three drivers, as previous series leader Talbot dropped to third place on 476, just behind Cook with 493, and ONeill leading the way on 526 points, but with three rounds remaining the Group 2 title chase is still wide open.
Returning to the fray after missing the Queensland round, Talbots Dukes Body Works Torana and Bernie Stack behind the wheel of the Gawler Self Storage Porsche will again be out to make their mark up against the Porsches of ONeill, Cook and John Nelson and the hard-charging Monaro of Greg Waddington.
The Biante Touring Car Masters will be the first cars on circuit with practice at 9.00am on Saturday followed by qualifying at 11.30am and race one at 1.45pm.
Back on track for Fathers Day on Sunday with the Biante Touring Car Masters race two at 10.45am and race three at 1.00pm, before the weekend wraps up with the inaugural Tasman Touring Car Trophy at 4.30pm.
The Biante Touring Car Masters is proudly supported by Biante Model Cars, Rare Spares, Shannons Insurance, Hoosier Tires and official charity RSPCA Australia.
