GARWOOD EYEING TCM TITLE IN SA
After extending his Touring Car Masters points lead at Sandown, Adam Garwood will head to The Bend West Circuit on November 22-24 with a chance of taking his maiden title in the fan favourite category.
He’s guided his #2 Holden VB Commodore to two wins this season, holding an 82 point lead over Jamie Tilley in the #29 Mustang.
“It was great to extend the points lead at Sandown, the main thing was to stay out of trouble and we did that pretty well,” Garwood told Auto Action.
He fell short of another win after a drag off with Danny Buzadzic in the finale, but he was pleased with how the Gerard McLeod run Commodore has held up speed-wise throughout the year across all tracks.
“Gerard has been working his butt off this year, it’s as much his success as it is mine. We’re doing it better than everyone else, and I’m not perfect in all cases and we hit and miss, but I believe we’ve worked the hardest and it’s showing.”
In terms of Garwood’s attitude to the more rigid Commodore, he says it’s been a steady process.
“We missed the mark at Bathurst with the development in chasing our tail, but from Perth onwards we were smart with the revs and the weight penalties, and just pushed when we had to.
“It took me a bit to get my head around this car with the stiffness – it has its pros and cons – as it’s quite different to the bigger wheelbase cars I’ve driven in the past.”
Ahead of the finale, he also shared his thoughts about how they’ll approach it considering the RPM penalty’s they’ll carry.
“We’ll absolutely be going to The Bend to race, obviously our rev RPM limit will hurt us a bit, and we have some points up our sleeve in case anything happens, but otherwise we’ll treat it as a normal race meeting.”
TCM will race at The Bend for just the second time, and the first at the smaller West Circuit, concluding a successful and rejuvenated six-event year for the category.
Image: James Smith
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