WHENEVER you hear Supercars driver and team statistics referred to in the television broadcast or via online or print media, on most occasions it’s information directly connected to points-paying championship rounds and races.
There have been many Australian touring car and Supercars races that haven’t been part of the championship that sometimes get left by the wayside by the statistics in the years that have followed.
Brad Jones Racing has won a total of 14 Supercars Championship races since its 2000 debut, however there’s one win that isn’t on that list – John Bowe’s 2005 Albert Park triumph at the non-championship Australian Grand Prix event.
The Falcon that Bowe used to take that victory, BJR chassis 06, indeed lives on these days in New Zealand and has very recently been placed up for sale in V8 Sleuth’s Online Showroom here.
It has been restored to the 2004 black OzEmail livery in which it finished third at that year’s Bob Jane T-Marts Bathurst 1000 driven by Bowe and Brad Jones.
Bowe, at the wheel of BJR 06, and teammate/team owner Jones ran home 1-2 in the Saturday race at Albert Park in 2005, their decision to start on slick tyres when the rest of the field opted for wet weather rubber proving to be the correct one as the track dried out.
Bowe won the race from 11th on the grid and Jones finished second from a lowly 24th grid position.
“100 times you could make that decision and it’s only going to pay off twice,” Bowe said at the time.
“It just so happened that it worked for us today.”
Jones couldn’t believe more drivers down the back of the pack didn’t try the same strategy.
“It was like taking candy from a baby,” he said post-race.
“If you are going to take a punt like that you had better make it work. There was never any doubt in my mind it was the right decision. I was really surprised some of the other guys down the back didn’t do the same.”
Bowe’s 2005 Albert Park race-winning Falcon made its V8 Supercars debut in the Tasmanian’s hands in white OzEmail livery at Albert Park 12 months earlier before it reverted to the fan-favourite black livery for the remainder of the season.
It was used by John Cleland and Dale Brede at Sandown and Bathurst in 2005 before continuing in Bowe’s hands in 2006.
It was the chassis Bowe was at the wheel of for his 200th Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercars Championship round start at Pukekohe in ’06 when the throttle jammed and sent him smashing into the Turn 1 fence, the accident resulting in trackside photographer Scott Wensley’s leg being broken.
Upgraded from BA to BF specification, this Falcon became Andrew Jones’ #12 BOC car in 2007 and he and Kiwi Simon Wills shared it at Sandown and Bathurst.
BJR moved to running ex-HRT Commodores in 2008 and this car lay idle until being sold to Wayne Russell for his son Drew to drive in the 2010 Fujitsu (now Super2) Series.
It was raced by Michael Hector in the 2012 Dunlop Series and moved into the Kumho V8 Touring Car Series with Matthew Palmer’s team in 2014.
Drew Russell drove it at that year’s Queensland Raceway round and Palmer raced it in the V8 Touring Car Series on occasion in 2015 before it was sold to a New Zealand buyer at the end of that year.
