Seven-pronged Kiwi TCM Bathurst invasion

AN influx of historic cars from across the ditch is set to spice up the Touring Car Masters action this weekend.

Seven New Zealand entries will join the field at Bathurst, making for 24 cars in total.

Among them will be the Pontiac Firebird of Dennis Lovegrove and the Valiant Charger of Tony Galbraith.

Adding to the Australian contingent, Brad Tilley will return to the series in the Ford Mustang Coupe raced last year by his son Jamie, who’s lining up in the Kumho Series this weekend.

Meanwhile Ben Dunn and his Chevrolet Monza are back for the first time since a crash at the 2022 Adelaide 500.

“I have committed to getting the Chevy Monza back for Bathurst and Adelaide this year and plan to do all of 2024,” said Dunn.

“Last year I crashed the Monza quite heavily at the Adelaide 500 and it took many months to source parts as you can expect there aren’t many Monzas in Australia.

“Jeff Barnes, who is a well-known Monza racer from the ‘80s and actually owned one of Allan Moffat’s original beasts, reached out to me to assist and is also sourcing me a back-up shell and parts from the USA later this year just so we have parts available moving forward.

“We are all keen to have our Kiwi cousins over which is always good to see their cars, hopefully they aren’t still too upset about losing the World Cup final in rugby.

“Any lap you can get at Bathurst, you take. It has so much history and is so amazing to drive, especially in the TCM cars they have heaps of horsepower and move around a lot so always put on great racing for the fans.”

Steven Johnson leads the outright Pro Master standings by 150 points from Ryan Hansford, with just the Bathurst and Adelaide rounds to come this year.

Entry list: Touring Car Masters, 2023 Supercheap Auto Bathurst International