Touring Car Masters locks in The Bend for final round
The Touring Car Masters (TCM) series has announced it will conclude its 2024 six round calendar at Tailem Bend in South Australia on November 22-24.
It will be the second time in two years that the TCM has visited The Bend, but this time it will compete on the shorter ‘West Circuit’, just one week after the VAILO Adelaide 500.
The undisputed fan favorite Supercars support category delivered some of the most exciting and spectacular racing at the recent Sydney Motorsport Park Supercars event. The opening ‘Trophy Race’ was decided by a photo finish, before the three championship sprints delivered fantastic action from start lights to flag.
Touring Car Masters – Ryan Hansford, leads Jamie Tilley and Joel Heinrich as they fight it out at the recent SMP Supercars event Image Credit James Smith Photograph
Series leader Ryan Hansford was in the thick of the battle over the weekend with plenty of talented racers, including a strong display from Adam Garwood in his Commodore, Joel Heinrich in a Camaro, with young guns Rylan Gray in a Ford Capri and Jamie Tilley in a Mustang serving it up to the veterans of the category.
At the conclusion of the weekend’s furious racing, it was Jamie Tilley who snatched a popular race win and first round victory.
With a healthy supporter base in SA, it means that South Australians won’t miss out on the fan favourite category in 2024, with the category also getting to cover all states and Territories except for Queensland and Tasmania, in what has been a successful season under new management.
TCM will visit Tailem Bend for the second year running to end its 2024 season. Image: Daniel Kalisz
After missing out on the Adelaide 500 support bill in what has been a Supercars exclusive year for the classic muscle cars, TCM’s Rowan Harman says that it’s a great opportunity for the category to end its season in SA.
“After losing the opportunity to go back to SMP and also to be on the Adelaide 500 card, we were able to work in with a South Australian enduro state round, which means we get to visit most of the states and territories this year,” Harman told AUTO ACTION.
“And For those that will miss us at the Adelaide 500, it’ll just be a trip up the road to catch us at The Bend.
“The last couple of times we’ve run in SA we’ve run the invitational category and that will again be the case. We get a lot of support over there from both fans and prospective entry’s, and we’re very appreciative of The Bend being able to fit us in.”
SA is also home ground for one of the TCM mainstay teams – Whiteline Racing – with race winning regular Joel Heinrich currently steering its #95 Chevrolet Camaro RS sitting fourth in the championship.
Heinrich also captured his rookie TCM wins at The Bend on debut for Whiteline in 2023 in a daring sweep, whilst also winning at the Parklands at the 2023 Adelaide 500.
Heinrich did plenty of winning at The Bend and Adelaide last year for the local TCM Whiteline team. Image: Daniel Kalisz Photographer
After initially looking to support the Motorsport Australia SpeedSeries bill by again competing at SMP for the TCR international round – which was pulled earlier in the year – it now means that TCM won’t revisit the Sydney track after its recent Supercars SuperNight event.
With racing set to be on the shorter West circuit at The Bend, TCM fans can expect more laps and better racing with the back loop knocked off the circuit.
The event will feature two x practice sessions on Friday 22nd, qualifying and race one on Saturday 23rd, and races two and three on the Sunday 24th.
As the series currently stands after Round 4 at SMP, Adam Garwood holds a 43 point lead in his #2 Holden VB Commodore, with SuperNight round winner Jamie Tilley in hot pursuit in the #29 Mustang, who surpassed 2022’s champion Ryan Hansford for second place in the point score.
The next outing for the TCM will be its round five visit to Sandown for the Supercars Sandown 500 on September 13-15.
Pick up a physical copy of AUTO ACTION’s latest issue #1892, which contains a free Touring Car Masters colour poster: a sensational pictorial of its 2024 season, or you can download the the latest Aa digital magazine and download the poster and take it to your local print shop.
There’s also a great article from AA’s Bruce Williams in issue #1892 which looks ahead to TCM’s 2025 season and how the category is planning to keep building on its 2024 momentum. That can be viewed free online via the links below on pages 16-17.
READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION DIGITAL HERE
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