Heinrich wins again at The Bend
Joel Heinrich has made another happy memory at The Bend, dominating the first Touring Car Masters points race of the weekend.
Having swept last year’s round, the 2025 opener means Heinrich has won five of the last seven races at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park.
However, everyone was watching the action behind him as Adam Garwood fended off Andrew Fisher in a stunning fight for second that was decided by a drag race to the chequered.
At one point, the field was four wide following the rolling start with Heinrich emerging ahead in the braking zone ahead of Fisher, Hansford and Johnson.
Behind them was Cameron, but not for long as Garwood pulled off a stunning move around the outside of the never-ending right-hander.
This was the highlight of a clean opening lap with Heinrich skipping a second clear.
All eyes were behind him as an all Torana tussle for second between Fisher and Hansford thrilled the crowd.
After a small look on the opening lap, Hansford had another dive at the penultimate corner on the second occasion and this time he made it stick.
However, Fisher performed the criss-cross, sparking a stunning battle.
The pair carried on battling door to door across the first five corners, with Fisher holding sway.
In an attempt to fight back, Hansford got close to going up the hill at Turn 13, but locked up and spun off.
This mistake was extremely costly as the Multispares Torana tumbled down to 14th on the leaderboard.
Whilst it released Fisher briefly, he soon had Garwood on his tail.
Further back, there was also a dust storm in the form of Jeremy Hassell, who got caught wide and drifted out of control around the never-ending right-hander.
Hassell ended up doing a miraculous job at keeping his Torana away from competitors and the wall as he criss-crossed the track.
Martin Riseley became the latest spinner on Lap 4, going 180 degrees in the Mustang at Turn 6.
As Heinrich dominated, his Whiteline Racing teammate was sadly stuck in the pits with gearbox issues.
Despite catching him in the opening minutes, Garwood was not able to make a move on Fisher until Lap 8.
He had a crack with a big dive at the opening corner, but it was not until Turn 6 when the #1 got the job done, or so he thought.
Fisher fired back at the end of the lap and prevailed following a stunning side-by-side battle across the final four corners.
On the final lap the battle had the grandstand finish it deserved and was not decided until the chequered flag.
Garwood resumed the fight by having a look at Turn 6 before making a more committed dive bomb at Turn 13.
This saw the two little cars go door to door over the rise through the long right-hander with the Jesus Racing Torana using all of the dirt on exit.
The pair did not stop battling until the very end, as they even went side by side to the finish with Garwood winning the drag race by a single tenth.
The thrilling battle sets the scene for two more races tomorrow at 7.30 and 10.00 ACST.
Image: Peter Norton
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