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June 20, 2021 | General

All Ford battle to decide fan-favourite TCM racer

A battle of the Blue Oval will decide the fans favourite car racing in the Gulf Western Oil Touring Car Masters Series, after Cameron Mason’s Ford Mustang pulled a massive upset to win his preliminary final against Cameron Tilley’s Valiant Pacer.

It’s all part of a contest run via the TCM social media channels designed to find the favourite car among the passionate TCM fanbase.

In the closest contest yet, Mason’s ’69 Mustang, which sports a stunning tribute livery to Allan Moffat’s famous ‘Brut 33’ TransAm racer of the 1970s, edged out Tilley’s ever-popular Pacer by just 20 votes, 736-716, after the full 24 hours of voting.

Each match-up throughout the contest has had 24 hours of voting before the final numbers were tallied based on the number of reactions – either the thumbs up or the love heart – to any given car.

It will see the Mustang take on Steven Johnson’s Full Throttle Custom Garage XD Falcon in the winner-take-all final this Tuesday.

The Aussie-built Ford comfortably accounted for Tony Karanfilovski’s Ford BOSS Mustang in the first preliminary final as fans voting on the TCM Facebook page helped work down the top 16 cars currently racing in the championship down to the final two via a series of interactive, fan-based votes.

More than 12,500 votes have been cast and over 2,000 comments made by TCM fans backing their favourite cars amongst the diverse field.

The Russell Hancock-owned Mustang had a relatively easy run through the first round of voting, where it was pitched against the A9X Torana Sedan driven by Peter Burnitt.

However the car then had to face five-time TCM champion John Bowe’s Holden Torana in the Semi final, which it narrowly won.

That placed it into a head-on fight with Tilley’s Valiant in the Prelim, with the Chrysler product holding sway early in the voting before a late charge saw the Mustang edge ahead.

Johnson’s Falcon, new to the category this year, went up against Gerard McLeod’s Holden Commodore in Round one before beating Jamie Tilley’s Mustang in the Semi’s.

It then edged out Tony Karanfilovski’s popular Boss Mustang in the Prelim – appropriate, given Johnson spent time driving Tony K’s Falcon GTHO – to reach the final.

Voting will be open for 24 Hours on the TCM Facebook page from 9AM on Tuesday, 22nd June, to decide the winner.

Fans will vote with the ‘like’ (thumbs up) reaction for the Ford Mustang or with the ‘Love Heart’ reaction for the Falcon.

This was determined based on who had the most cumulative votes across the three rounds, with the Mustang gaining 2,005 votes and the Falcon 1,998.