March 4, 2016 | General

SETON EDGES BOWE IN ADELAIDE QUALIFYING THRILLER

 

A THRILLING duel for the first pole position of the 2016 Touring Car Masters season has gone the way of Glenn Seton by the smallest of margins.

The Thunder Road Racing Team Australia Ford Mustang driver quite literally saved his best for last by jumping to the top spot on his 11^th and last lap of the 20-minute session crossing the line after the chequered flag to grab pole for Ford.

Bowe had laid down an impressive 1m28.39s lap late in the session the time a full 1s underneath the existing TCM qualifying record – already held by Bowe – on the Adelaide parklands circuit.

Having banked the lap Bowe pitted his Wilson Security / Pace Torana content with his effort but the last gasp charge from Seton saw him edge Bowe by just 0.06s on his final lap.

It’s the first time since 2009 that Bowe hasn’t qualified on pole at the Clipsal 500 and ends his run of six straight Adelaide TCM pole positions.

The most competitive TCM Qualifying session in years saw several drivers hold top spot throughout the duration – one of them Chevy Monza driver Greg Ritter.

Having scored pole on his TCM debut at Phillip Island last year Ritter looked likely to take his second straight pole today before first Bowe then Seton bested his otherwise impressive 1m28.68s benchmark.

Jim Richards took the Shannons Insurance AMC Javelin to fourth (1m29.05s) with Eddie Abelnica’s XB Falcon Coupe fifth and the last car within 1s of Seton’s pole effort.

Andrew Miedecke was another contender in the Whiteline Racing Camaro and will start race one from sixth position just ahead of Steve Johnson in the XY GHTO Falcon. Mark King (8^th) Jason Gomersall (9^th) and Andrew Fisher rounded out a fiercely competitive top-10.

Race one will be held at 4:30pm and will be shown live on FOX Sports Motorsport.

RESULTS