THE most famous car in Touring Car Masters history has been sold – and may yet return to the race track.
‘Mustang Sally’, the 1969 TransAm Mustang driven to multiple titles by both John Bowe and Steven Johnson has been sold to a private collector in Queensland.
The collector wishes to keep his identity private though admitted to v8sleuth.com.au today that the car may be seen on the racetrack again in future, though only with a name driver and in the right circumstances.
“The car isn’t retired officially and I am open to leasing it out for someone to run in the future,” the collector told us today.
“It all depends on the right driver and the right situation. I wouldn’t put a ‘no-name’ driver in the car. It would have to be someone who will add to its history.”
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Mustang Sally is the most successful car in the history of the Touring Car Masters category. It has been driven to six TCM title victories by John Bowe (2011, 2012, 2014) and Steven Johnson (2017, 2018, 2019).
Originally brought into Australia by Drew Marget, it was built for Group N historic racing though reconfigured to suit the somewhat more liberal TCM rules in 2007.
Bowe purchased the car from Marget and raced it from 2010 to 2015. It was parked for the majority of the ’15 season as well as 2016 before returning in Johnson’s hands in 2017.
Team Johnson has moved to its new Tru-Blu-inspired XD Falcon for this year’s Touring Car Masters, meaning the Mustang was laying idle.
The car has been raced by Marget, Bowe and Johnson but also by Stephen White (at Sandown 2013 after Bowe was benched for the weekend after a clash with an official) and Neil Crompton, who drove it at the Muscle Car Masters in Sydney in 2015.
Mustang Sally’s TCM record is astounding – according to Race Torque Media’s Richard Craill, the car has scored 36 round wins from 82 starts and 94 race wins from 253 starts.
The car also holds the record for the most TCM race wins in a single season – 14 – achieved by Bowe in 2012 and Johnson in 2018.
It also scored nine consecutive pole positions across the 2013 to 2015 seasons, a TCM category record.
