JIM ENJOYS 44TH YEAR TO RACE AT BATHURST
11 OCTOBER 2018
In 1974 Jim raced for the first time in the Bathurst 1000 as co-driver with fellow New Zealander Rod Coppins in a Holden Torana SLR 5000 to finish third.
That was the first of thirteen podiums at the mountain in the 1000 kilometre race which included seven firsts, three seconds and three thirds.
This year Jim returned to race his 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint in the seventh round of the Touring Car Masters series with the intention of finishing all four races and enjoy racing on the iconic circuit.
The one practice session was wet and Jim found the car almost undrivable to finish 24th in the thirty car field and it was no better in the single qualifying session with 25th place.
“I don’t know why but the Sprint has never been very good in the wet especially as far as traction goes but in the dry it’s a different car”. said the former two time series winner in TCM.
Fortunately the four scheduled races were run in dry conditions and in the first six lap race Jim was able to work his way through to 14th place at the finish making up eleven positions.
The second event was the four lap trophy race with a shuffled up grid with Jim starting from 12th and finishing 7th while in the next race Jim started 14th and finished 12th.
In the final race Jim started 12th and finished 8th less than a second behind the 7th placed car at the line which he was confident he would have passed.
“Overall I was extremely happy with the weekend and the car was the best it has ever been. What it does demonstrate is how critical it is to qualify as far up the grid as possible otherwise in a short race you are battling to make up positions on cars that are still very fast”. said Jim.
“We did not have to do anything to the car over the four days apart from checking the tyre pressures and it was good to come away from the weekend with a straight car and no need for repairs”. said Jim.
This was the last race meeting for the Sprint this year as Jim has elected not to go to the final round of the TCM series at Newcastle.
As for next year Jim has not made any decisions at this stage and will give it some thought over the next few months.
He has concerns about the direction TCM has gone in recent years which he feels has drifted away from the original concept that was established in 2007 that allowed for certain modifications from the Group N historic regulations.
There have been significant technical changes that effectively make early built cars uncompetitive and have increased the costs enormously to stay at the front.
The cut off point has now been extended to the end of 1980 to accommodate the XD Falcon and it’s only a matter of time before the Commodore is allowed..
TCM is a great class which has huge fan base across the country but the powers that make the decisions need to take a step back and remind themselves of the original intention so it continues for years to come.
The Pro Masters title will go down to the wire at Newcastle with defending champion Steve Johnston in the Ford Mustang 59 points ahead of five time champion John Bowe in the Torana.
Jim has expressed his appreciation to his devoted crew of Mick Webb, Bruce Tyson, Russell Woollard and Brian Gelding and also to sponsors Shannons, Adrenalin and Leatherman for their ongoing support.
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