Biante battle wide open at the Top End
Two-time Bathurst 1000 winner, John Bowe will line up for the third round of the Biante Touring Car Masters at the Hidden Valley circuit (NT) on 19-21 June, determined to repeat his performance of last year when he won all three races.
Currently third in the BTCM standings in his WesTrac Cat Camaro, Bowe sits 75 points behind runaway leader, Gavin Bullas, and needs to score maximum points to close the gap to stay in contention for the title.
We had a good run there last year, but I think you will find the opposition will be lot tougher this time round, John Bowe said.
There should be at least six cars battling for outright honours in Group 1, which will be great for the fans, the former Australian Touring Car and Sports Car Champion said.
Jim Richards, who debuted his brand new Shannons Falcon Sprint at Hidden Valley in 2008 and finished an impressive second overall to Bowe, will be looking for another strong run this time around.
In the last 12 months we have made a few changes including a different tyre combination, suspension settings, different gearbox, fine tuned the engine and fitted power steering, so the car should be better, multiple Bathurst winner, Jim Richards said.
Richards was quick to add that no doubt everyone else made improvements, so Im expecting at least half a dozen cars to be fighting for the trophies.
While the less powerful Sprint will lose out on the one kilometre straight, Richards car should be better under brakes and in the twisty sections due to its lighter weight.
Championship leader, Gavin Bullas finished third last year in the Rain City Racing Boss Mustang, but expects to be more competitive this time having swapped the 302 Boss engine at the beginning of the season for the larger 351.
With input from former V8 Supercar Champion, Glenn Seton, Steve Mason has overcome his power down problems in the Hercules Engines Chevrolet Camaro, but found at Winton that he now needs to do some work on the front end to overcome understeer.
The Marget Engineering Trans Am Mustang of Drew Marget has undergone a major revamp of the shock absorbers and is expecting a big improvement in handling and, after a strong run in race one at Darwin last year, Brad Tilley should also be in the mix with his Tilleys Automotive Falcon XY GT.
For this meeting, the much raced XY Falcon GT of Phil Morris will be driven by Brads brother Cameron Tilley, and the Rain City Racing XY Falcon GTHO will again be driven by Rod Wilson who finished on the podium in the opening round in Adelaide.
Group 2 leader, Trevor Talbot is relishing the power of the new motor he ran in the Dukes Bodyworks LJ Torana XU-1 for the first time at Winton, but is expecting to be under pressure from Greg Waddington in the Waddington HQ Holden SS and Mick Wilson in the Treloar Roses/Mick Wilson Plumbing Valiant Charger RT.
Talbot had gearbox problems at Winton, but is confident that it has now been fixed and will be looking to extend his 41-point lead over the Blackcat Racing 911 Porsche of South Australian Rory ONeill.
ONeill is part of the five-car, South Australian Porsche Panzer division that should add some real spice to the Group 2 battle.
Last year, the Porsches were running the smaller 2.7-litre engines and lost out big time on the straight, but were much quicker through the tighter sections.
This year, they have been allowed to go to the 3.2-litre engine and hopefully they will now be able to stay in touch with Talbot, Waddington and Mick Wilson.
Going into this round ONeill is only three points in front of Graeme Cook in the Racemoves/Buik Bodyworks Porsche, but both will need to watch out for round one winner John Nelson and veteran Bernie Stack.
In the Nelson Architects 911 Porsche, Nelson failed to score any points at Winton due to a mechanical failure and Stack, after winning Group 2 and impressively finishing sixth overall, was disqualified from race one at Winton.
Stacks Gawler Self Storage car was found to be three kilograms underweight in the opening race, so Stack and Nelson will be going all out to make amends.
The Cameron Mason Datsun 510 has undergone a complete suspension revamp and, while the Datsun is going to be outgunned on the straight, Mason Jnr will be hoping for improved lap times.
The TIFS-Warehousing and Distribution Alfa Romeo of Tony Karanfilovski made its debut at Winton but suffered numerous problems, so he will be aiming for an easier weekend this time to get some points on the board.
Round three of the 2009 Biante Touring Car Masters at Hidden Valley Raceway kicks off on Friday 19 June with the Biante Touring Car Masters first on-track session at 9.40am for practice.
The Biante Touring Car Masters is proudly supported by Biante Model Cars, Rare Spares, Shannons Insurance, Hoosier Tires and official charity RSPCA Australia.
