Bowe prepares for 1000 race starts

John Bowe hit the track at Winton today to shakedown his record breaking 69 Mustang Fastback ahead of the Touring Car Masters season,which kicks off at next weekend's Clipsal 500.

Returning champion Bowe - who won the crown last year, as well as in 2011 and '12 - will join 34 TCM cars on the grid in Adelaide, the largest Touring Car Masters grid ever seen at the event.

His beloved 'Mustang Sally' has won 53 races in the category, with Bowe having recorded a total of 67 race wins in the TCM - the mostof any driver.

But that is just the beginning, as Bowe looks to notch up his 1000th race start in 2015 - and the way things are going, that feat could very well happen at Mount Panorama, when the Touring Car Masterslines up at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

He currently has 975 race starts as he lines up at the Clipsal 500.

"I race for the love of racing, I've never been a title/record chaser - that's just what happens if you do well over a long career," Bowe said.

"When you consider I've been racing Jimmy Richards for over thirty years it's really quite remarkable."

Bowe is looking forward to two-time Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar Champion and Hall of Famer Glenn Seton joining the Touring Car Masters field, as he pushes to take home another title.

"I'm pleased Glenn Seton has joined TCM for the full season, he's in my friend Don Dimitriadis's Mustang.

"Seto will raise the bar and add a new exciting dimension to the category.

"I think his choice of a 302 engine will have plenty of benefits with less weight and more revs (than a 351) and that will really make it interesting. That combination is way kinder to tyres and brakes over a weekend of racing."

Bowe will be on-track from Thursday in the Touring Car Masters, and returns as a columnist on v8supercars.com.au for 2015.