JOHN Bowe might be saying ‘ciao for now’ to full-time Touring Car Masters competition this weekend, but he has revealed some of his racing plans for 2024.
The 69-year-old will compete in the Monochrome GT4 Australia series next year as the newly-formed, SRO Motorsport-run category prepares for its inaugural season under the Shannons SpeedSeries umbrella.
Bowe will compete in all six rounds alongside Jacob Lawrence in the BMW F82 M4 that they shared in the Australian Production Car round at The Bend in October.
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“It’s really exciting to be able to join the new GT4 series with the Shannons SpeedSeries next year,” Bowe said.
“It’s a new challenge. I decided not to race in TCM anymore because I have been in it for a long time and won a lot of races, but this GT4 series really appeals to me.
“I think the category makes a lot of sense, it’s not for gold or platinum drivers it’s for people that don’t want to race but don’t want to spend millions on a car.
“All the SRO sprint races will be an hour with a compulsory pit stop, so we can share the wheel and the endurance races make it the ideal program.
“I have driven over 60 different race cars in my life, so this is going to be another adventure.
“Peter and Jacob Lawrence are very enthusiastic BMW owners, they are good blokes and they asked me to do a bit of coaching with Jacob.
“They then asked me to race with him in Adelaide when they had the round there. We did some fantastic racing so they asked me if I wanted to share the car.
“I get a great sense of satisfaction out of seeing Jacob go well, he is the real deal and has the racing gene in him.
“It’s going to be fun, I’ll be there all next year and we will see how we go after that.”
Bowe announced at the start of the year that the 2023 TCM season would be his last as a full-time driver in the category, which wraps up its season at this weekend’s VAILO Adelaide 500.
The 2024 Monochrome GT4 season gets underway with a non-points three-hour endurance race at Sandown in February, before the opening round of the championship at Phillip Island in April.
