John Bowe: Winton the best racing yet

08 Apr 2014

"Anyone who doesn't think V8 Supercar racing is the best in the world needs to have a good long hard look at themselves after Winton!" JB says.

4 mins by James Pavey

Garth Tander

2014

Supercars

...

Now, anyone who doesn't think V8 Supercars racing is the best in the world needs to go and have a good long hard look at themselves after the weekend’s racing we had at Winton!

If I didn't know any better I’d think that was scripted.

Take a moment to think about it – the Champion team is at the rear of the field, a Kiwi wins in a dominant fashion, a good bloke wins in a Mercedes funded by an interesting business woman with no backing from Mercedes themselves, yet.

Not to make too fine a point on it, in the big long race on Sunday an ace driver flattered a car that has struggled a bit this year. He and his team win the race against much more fancied rivals.

Wait, there’s more ... a small Swedish manufacturer is once again the quickest car of all in the races but has nothing to show for it.

Was that a script for a mini series, I ask?

James Courtney, a former Champion, is showing pace and most of all racing maturity, his gun teammate Garth Tander must be doing plenty of soul searching after the weekend he just had.

Russell Ingall should be kicking himself in the bum for a dumb mistake (punting David Wall) when he had one foot on a podium spot due to their brilliant strategy.

This year’s V8 Supercars Championship is throwing up such interesting and swirling changes in pace and results it’s almost impossible to predict an outcome (Champion) at this stage.

The common factor in a lot of this is the use of the Dunlop Sport Maxx soft tyre. I would like to call on the decision makers to consider the use of the ‘soft tyre’ at all the rounds, including Bathurst!

Yes, Bathurst; no, I’m not mad – here’s why.

The Dunlop Sport Maxx soft tyre brings with it incredible racing and adds a special ingredient that’s been missing – tyre conservation while going quickly. It is guaranteed to really spice up the racing, I reckon.

Make no mistake, not torching your tyres is a skill in fine tuning your throttle and steering inputs and adds a different dimension to the racing – a bit like we had back in the day.

In days gone by there were Dunlop, Bridgestone and Yokohama all fighting for the laurels in the free tyre era.

This new V8 Supercar era is giving us better and more varied racing than we’ve had in the past 15 years, long may it continue! All we need now is another two manufacturers to join us and Ford to make a solid long term commitment to the future and the world’s our oyster.

For me, Winton was one of the most interesting weekend’s racing in a long time. I think you’ll find part of the answer was ever changing circuit conditions. If a team picked it right, got their setup spot on they were at the top of the results.

Finally, to make my point apparent, when’s the last time you saw Tander qualify in 20th spot, Jamie in 21st and Lowndsey 23rd, for that matter?! That’s how they started the second race (Race Eight) on Saturday afternoon.

Apparently, some of you reckon the racing’s been boring – it hasn’t been where I’ve been, maybe it’s time to fine tune your TV sets, kids!

I reckon it’s just heating up now. And let me assure you this Championship is a long way from being over. We’re in for one hell of a fight. Stay tuned.

Now – this story is the real deal.

I went for dinner on Saturday night with Stevie Johnson, John McMellan (CEO Wilson Security) and his lovely wife Deb. What do you think the topic for discussion was over dinner?

Wilson Security are fantastic supporters of Dick Johnson Racing and my TCM Mustang Sally. We agreed, Stevie J will have a crack in Mustang Sally this year. There’s no better way to keep him tuned for his PIRTEK Enduro Cup drive with DJR, alongside Wall, than at the wheel of a wild beast like Mustang Sally.

First thing you know on Sunday morning – Stevie must’ve skipped breakfast and he’s over checking Sally out, we have a deal. The TCM boys will love having Stevie Johnson in the ranks.

Now, I have to find myself another car to race myself. It will be very odd racing against Mustang Sally and Stevie. I know his style – I was his coach in his early days. Maybe I should’ve held back a few of my secrets.

I’ll keep you posted on Stevie’s TCM debut!

Cheers,

Follow John Bowe on Facebook. Bowe is supported by Wilson Security, Dunlop Super Dealers and Coates Hire, and competing in the 2014 Touring Car Masters Championship.