TOURING Car Masters racer Jamie Tilley is set to jump into the Kumho Tyres Australian V8 Touring Car Series this year at the wheel of an ex-Craig Lowndes Falcon FG.
Tilley, who raced a Ford Mustang in the TCM series in recent years, is stepping into an ex-Triple Eight Ford and recently tested it at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The car was purchased by Newcastle-based Group N racer Adam Walton and his wife Terri late last year.
“We’re going to run Jamie in the whole V8 Touring Car Series and try and get his name out there and get him noticed,” Walton told V8 Sleuth.
“He’s a good steerer and been going well in TCM, he just needs a break.
“Brad (Tilley) and Jamie are looking after the car and we’re going to do the full series. My wife and I purchased the car as an investment given its history but we thought we’d get it onto the track and give Jamie a run in it and see how he goes.”
Walton confirmed the car will run #57 – his regular Group N racing number – in a black and orange livery.
“We’ve got a few blokes around that race as well and they’ve put their hands in their pockets to help sponsor it. There’s half a dozen of us backing it so we’ll have a good crack at it this year.”
The Falcon is one of the original batch of FGs produced by Triple Eight Race Engineering for the 2009 season.
It was raced by Craig Lowndes in Vodafone colours for the opening few rounds of that year and won both races at Winton.
The chassis became Jonathon Webb’s Mother Falcon that won in wet weather at Sydney Olympic Park in 2010.
Webb drove it in 2011 before it was then sold to Paul Morris Motorsport and run out of Dick Johnson Racing with Steve Owen driving and VIP Petfoods as sponsor.
The chassis was also raced by Andre Heimgartner in the 2013 Dunlop Series and was most recently raced by David Murphy in Super3 since 2020.
The Kumho Tyres Australian V8 Touring Car Series will be held over five rounds as part of this year’s Shannons SpeedSeries calendar.
Its first round will be at Phillip Island on May 12-14 with following rounds at Winton, Sydney Motorsport Park, Sandown and November’s Bathurst International.
