Bullas wins Winton in Biante Touring Car Masters
Scoring a trio of second places, Bullas unexpectedly triumphed over main series rival, John Bowe who took victory in the opening two races. Former V8 Supercar driver, Bowe claimed pole from the current champion after laying down a 1:32.2571m lap in Saturday’s qualifying session. With all eyes on the Bowe-Bullas battle for race one, Bowe got the jump off the start while Bullas dropped behind the GT Falcon of Brad Tilley. Further down the pack, the 2008 Group 2 champion, Greg East spun dramatically at the first corner and, as chaos ensued, some skilful steering saw the remainder of the field siphon through miraculously avoiding a major incident. Back to the front of the action, Bullas made his way ahead of the Tilley’s Automotive GT, then blew past Bowe at the start of lap two, with Bowe returning the favour within a few corners. Repeating the move under brakes at turn one on the following lap, Bullas again assumed the race lead. A Winton specialist, Bowe’s experience was plainly evident as he once again took control of the pack. A mistake from Bowe allowed Bullas to close the gap intensifying the battle at the front until an error at turn one from Bullas left Bowe a clear run to the chequered flag. The reigning champion, Bullas finished second some 5.5sec down the road from Bowe despite setting a new lap record at the Winton circuit. Series newcomer, Bernie Stack led the Group 2 cars to the finish line, impressively steering the Gawler Self Storage Porsche 911 RS to sixth place. However, his car was later deemed 3kg underweight and disqualified from the race, elevating Graeme Cook’s Racemoves / Buick Motorworks Porsche to the top Group 2 spot in eighth overall. With a reverse-top-eight grid for race two, Cook started from pole position alongside the Ford Mustang of Drew Marget. Cook impressively led the field for the opening two laps of 12 before succumbing to the Marget Engineering Mustang at the start of lap three. A hard charging Bowe sprinted from eighth to follow Marget past Cook to claim second place before quickly muscling his Camaro into the race lead. Series leader Bullas was again the fastest on the circuit as he raced to join the battle at the front. By lap five, Bowe again headed the pack with Bullas in hot pursuit and Tilley rounding out the top three, with the trio’s finishing positions repeating the race one stoush. Cook was once again the man to beat in the Group 2 class, closely followed by Trevor Talbot and Stack.Lining up for the third and final race of the weekend without podium contender Tilley, who broke his belt housing in the previous race, the battle for the final Touring Car’ podium placing was wide open. Bullas took an early lead in the 12-lap decider, but was unable to hold the advantage, coming under fire from the #14 Camaro of Alastair MacLean who assumed the race lead with Marget in second followed by Bullas and Bowe. Delivering an action-packed battle, the race lead swapped repeatedly among Marget, Bowe and Bullas with 2007 Champion Steve Mason and MacLean ready to pounce. Tony Karafilovski’s stricken Tifs Alfa Romeo then brought out the safety car for the first time for the weekend, compressing the field and setting up a climactic final dash to the chequered flag. As racing resumed, Bullas made the most of the Boss Mustang’s horsepower and pulled a quick gap on Bowe and Marget, but his advantage was short lived as the race lead switched rapidly between Bowe, Marget, Mason and Bullas. A costly error saw Bowe accidentally switch off his fuel pump and drift back down the order in the dying stages of the race. Rectifying the issue, the Tasmanian regained a couple of places, but forfeited the overall round win to Bullas. The final race win went to Marget, followed across the line by Bullas, Mason, Tony Edwards and Bowe trailing in fifth place. Talbot’s Dukes Body Works Torana XU-1 scored the final Group 2 race win. Talbot and Cook scored equal points for the round with the victory awarded to Cook on countback, with Talbot in second and Rory O’Neill rounding out the top three. Bullas maintains his strong championship lead with Marget now in second overall Bowe close behind in third. Talbot has snatched the overall Group 2 series lead and now sits ahead of the Porsches of O’Neill and Cook. The Biante Touring Car Masters is set to get even hotter when the series heads to the Top End for round three at Hidden Valley Raceway (Darwin, NT) on 19-21 June. GAVIN BULLAS: “It was a pretty consistent weekend. We struggled a bit with tyres; we messed up in qualifying and missed the premium lap and had to settle for second. “In race one, we had a good battle with JB, but really burnt up our tyres trying to catch him. “I struggled to get through traffic in the reverse grid for race two and by the time we did, it was too late to make up the lost ground and we were never really able to catch him. “It was a good start for us in the third race although we struggled with our tyres until we got them up to temp. “I was told on radio that lap 10 was the final lap, so I backed off – the sun was sitting so low I couldn’t see if the chequered flag was out – I thought we had the win and then Drew went past me at full noise and we realised it wasn’t over and got back on the gas, but by then we couldn’t catch him and got another second place. “It was an unexpected win to score the overall round honours. I really thought JB would take the last race too, but it’s good for my own championship so I’ll take it gladly.”
Biante Touring Car Masters Championship Group 1 Group 2 The Biante Touring Car Masters is proudly supported by Biante Model Cars, Rare Spares, Shannons Insurance, Hoosier Tires, Coopers and official charity RSPCA Australia. Marscelle Tully,
Media Manager
THE RACING CALENDAR FOR 09… The Australian Series 2009: 2009 BIANTE Touring Car Masters:
Previous Editions of Latest News March 09 Round 1: Biante Touring Car Masters – Clipsal500 March 09: Introduction to Biante Camaro
November 08: Mallala – Australian Championship November 08: Oran Park – Australian Championship July 08 Round 3: Barbagallo – Australian Championship May 08 Round 2: Mallala – Australian Championship April 08 Round 1: Oran Park – Australian Championship April 08 Round 2: Timaru – New Zealand Championship January 08 Round 1: Timaru – New Zealand Championship
November 07 Round 5: Oran Park – Australian Championship October 07 Round 4: Mallala – Australian Championship August 07 Round 3: Barbagallo – Australian Championship June-July 07 Round 2: Mallala – Australian Championship
November 06 Round 4: Oran Park – Australian Championship October 06 Round 3: Barbagallo – Australian Championship July 06 Round 2: Mallala – Australian Championship May 06 Round 1: Oran Park – Australian Championship
Sept 05 Round 6: Oran Park – Australian Championship May 05 Round 5: Barbagallo – Australian Championship May 05 Round 4: Mallala – Australian Championship May 05 Round 3: Winton – Australian Championship April 05 Round 2: Manfield – New Zealand Championship March 05 Round 1: Timaru – New Zealand Championship
Aug 04 Round 3: Barbagallo – Australian Championship May 04 Round 1: Mallala – Australian Championship Feb 04 Round 3: Pukekohe – New Zealand Championship Jan 04 Round 2: Manfield – New Zealand Championship Jan 04 Round 1: Timaru - New Zealand Championship
August 03 : Truckin' Life December 03 : New truck finshed with only weeks to spare before Timaru race!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wednesday the road show was loaded, with John ‘the bomber” Bomberle taking off in the b-double transporter early hours of Thursday morning and Bob, Gregg and Mark taking off in the Wild Hogs Freightliner Van sparrows on Thursday. The transporter needed to be in place late Thursday and unloaded as scrutineering was scheduled for 7.30 a.m. on Friday.
Race 1 was held at 2.25 and over 12 laps. Starting out of qualifying positions, the race was underway, only to find in turn one, mayhem ensue when Greg East spun – dust was flying everywhere and visibility was ground zero – cars were going every which way. With the sound of the Indianna Jones theme song in my head, emerging from the dust was Bobby in the 95 Whiteline Racing Camaro. By the start of the 2nd lap he had moved into 11th, with Bowe, Bullas and Tilley fighting out the first three positions. Bob would remain in 11th for the next three laps, when he moved into 10th pouncing on Marget’s mistake running infield. 
Our first race Sunday wasn’t until 11.05 and again over 12 laps. The first 8 from yesterday’s race were to start reverse grid. Starting out of 11th the green light saw an average start for Bob off the line losing six spots – the higher range diff requires a completely different strategy – higher revving to get off the line – instead we were bogged down. It was a clean start for the field with everyone getting through turn 1 unscathed. By the start of the 2nd lap was back in 20th spot, making up one spot only to lose it again. Circulating for the next few laps, not making any impact, eventually was forced to retire on the start of the 6th lap when the gear stick got stuck in 3rd whilst the gearbox was in 4th. So a d.n.f. for race 2. After the race, in the pit, Bob commented that the start was ‘full noise, feeling totally unsettled with cars left, right and all around”. Mark and Bomber got busy underneath the Camaro to make the necessary repairs. Time was on our side with the next race not until 4.30. Bowe had an excellent race, taking out honours followed by Bullas and Tilley.
A legacy of the d.n.f. was a rear of field start for the final race of the day. A clean start, saw Bob in 15th position by the first corner, moving into 13th by the start of lap 3. MacLean, Marget and Bowe were 1, 2 and 3. On the 7th lap the safety car entered the field bunching up the group by which time, Bullas was leading followed by Marget and Bowe, Bob was still travelling in 13th. With only a couple of laps to go, Bowe accidentally switched off his fuel pump dropping back through the field to fifth, in the meantime, Bob managed to peg off a couple of cars moving up into 9th, with the race win going to Marget, Bullas and Mason, Bowe would finish in 5th. So after a d.n.f. in the previous race to finish in the top 10 was really pleasing for Bob and the team.
Defending Rain City Racing driver, Gavin Bullas claimed his second consecutive round win in the 2009 Biante Touring Car Masters’ round two at Winton Raceway (VIC), this weekend.
