Heinrich cruises to back to back wins
Whiteline Racing’s Joel Heinrich continued his love affair with The Bend, going back to back in the Touring Car Masters finale ahead of championship favourite Adam Garwood.
After emerging from a three-wide opening corner, Heinrich was untouchable in the Whiteline Racing Camaro and cruised to a 9s triumph.
Garwood further tightened his grip on the 2024 Touring Car Masters title by snatching second from Andrew Fisher in the closing stages of a thrilling fight for best of the rest honours.
Ryan Hansford and Danny Buzadzic completed the top five, but the race was not without drama as the Multispares Racing Torana clashed with Scott Cameron.
In a further blow for the outside championship contenders, Jamie Tilley’s Mustang limped home with gremlins and was down in 12th
Off the rolling start, it was an even getaway for the front row of Heinrich and Hansford, but Garwood had the best launch and made it three wide.
By the time they got to the first turn, Heinrich hit the lead on the inside, while Fisher followed him to soar up to second ahead of Hansford and Garwood.
The Whiteline Racing Camaro was able to pull seven tenths of breathing space on Fisher, while Hansford had to cover multiple times to negate the threat of Garwood throughout the opening lap.
The Multispares Racing Torana defensive effort would not last long however.
A mighty exit from the opening complex of turns gave Garwood a great run in the shoot down to Turn 5, where the VB Commodore soared past the Torana.
Hansford tried to fight back at the Turn 6 hairpin, but it was to no avail.
By the start of Lap 3, Hansford had his work cut out keeping hold of fourth from Scott Cameron.
The #6 Torana got loose coming out of the final corner, allowing Cameron to launch an attack down the pit straight.
The pair went side by side with Hansford on the inside, but Cameron tried to brake later around the outside.
However, contact was made, sending Cameron into a smokey spin at the first turn and he would fall from fourth to 12th.
Hansford still ended up losing fourth in the process with Danny Buzadzic pouncing on the opportunity.
As Cameron smoked up his DFH Camaro, Dean Lillie driving the Steven Johnson Hancock Racing Mustang, did some rallying through the infield to retain sixth.
He would have a second spin three laps later at turn 17 where both Cameron and Peter Burnitt went too deep and found the grass.
Amid all the drama, Heinrich was flying and pulled 6s clear of fisher.
This is due to the Jesus Racing Torana being more focused on retaining second from Garwood, who was in the wheel tracks.
They were lucky to escape the opening corner of Lap 6 without contact as Garwood’s VB Commodore got out of shape in the braking zone.
This battle went all the way to the penultimate lap where Fisher cracked under pressure.
He locked up the left front mid corner and ran wide, offering an open invitation to Garwood to slip past.
Meanwhile there was no touching Heinrich, who cruised to another success.
The third and final Touring Car Masters race of the year is at 11.35 ACDT.
Touring Car Masters The Bend Race 2 results
All images: James Smith Photography
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