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John Bowe joins Ranger Lifting Ford GT Bathurst 6 Hour team
Australian motor sport legend John Bowe will again tackle the mountain in this years Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour, joining the Ranger Lifting backed FG Falcon GT team.
Bowe will race with the car’s regular pilot Aaron McGill as they look to represent the last of the V8-powered Aussie ‘muscle’ cars on the Mountain.
The Ranger Falcon GT is just one of the 70 teams confirmed to race over the Easter long weekend, 15 – 17 April 2022.
Bowe’s involvement is testament to the Ranger Lifting team’s growth and rigorous training since last year’s event.
Bowe brings valuable technical insight to this year’s team, as he was part of the original design and test team that manufactured the later FG Falcon GT.
“I have spent most of my life in the Ford world and a have special attachment to the Ford GT Falcon,” Bowe said.
“So, when Steve asked me to race, I had no hesitation. This will be my 36th year racing at Bathurst and it’s a terrific race- all sorts of cars competing over the weekend makes it very exciting.”
As one of Australia’s most decorated drivers, Bowe, has won national titles in open wheelers, sportscars and touring cars.
He is a seasoned Australian Champion, having twice won the Australian Drivers’ Championship during the Formula Mondial era and is a two-time Bathurst 1000 winner, in 1989 and 1994, both with the Dick Johnson Racing Team.
Retiring in 2007 from V8 Supercars, he’s been a front-runner in the popular Touring Car Masters series, bagging multiple titles and recently becoming the first driver to reach 100 race wins in the category.
Bowe joins Ranger Lifting’s Aaron McGill, who returns as co-driver.
McGill is a regular competitor in TCM thus giving Touring Car Masters fans every reason to cheer on the Ranger Falcon V8.
“I’ve had many chances to climb that balcony at Bathurst, but this time I know we have the people and the car” McGill said.
“Ranger have invested heavily into this long-term project and JB and I intend to do all we can to deliver for the Ranger Lifting & its clients”.
McGill and Bowe are backed my long-time friend and sponsor, Steve Thacker, Managing Director of Ranger.
“I’m excited at the prospect of being involved in the resurgence of class and production racing at Mount Panorama. It’ll be racing like it used to be” he said.
The car Ranger will be entering in 2022 may well be the last production GT Falcon to compete in a national motorsport event, the last in a long lineage of pedigree Falcons.
The 2022 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour will be contested across the Easter Long weekend (April 15-17) this year.
Bowe is the latest of several major driver announcements made in the last week, including the return of Marcos Ambrose – who will share a Ford Mustang with George Miedecke this year.
Bathurst 1000 winner Will Davison was also announced to join the race-winning Beric Lynton BMW team last week.
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