John Bowe (racing driver)
| John Bowe | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Nationality |  Australian |
| Born | April 16, 1954 Devonport, Tasmania |
| 2012 Touring Car Masters | |
| Debut season | 2008 |
| Current team | John Bowe Racing |
| Car no. | 18 |
| Former teams | Sunliner RV |
| Starts | 39 |
| Wins | 13 |
| Best finish | 2nd in 2008 & 2009 |
| Previous series | |
| 1978–85 1979–81 1986–87 1986–2007 1996–1998,2001 2002–03 2007–08,2011 |
Australian Drivers' Champ. Australian Formula 2 Aust. Sports Car Champ V8 Supercars Aust. GT Production Nations Cup Aust. GT Champ |
| Championship titles | |
| 1984 1985 1986 1989 1994 1995 |
Australian Drivers' Champ. Australian Drivers' Champ. Aust. Sports Car Champ Bathurst 1000 Bathurst 1000 Aust. Touring Car Champ |
John Bowe (born 16 April 1954 in Devonport, Tasmania) is an Australian racing driver, presently racing a 1969 Ford Mustang in the historic series, Touring Car Masters.
Bowe is a multiple Australian Champion, having twice won the Australian Drivers' Championship during the Formula Mondial era and the Australian Sports Car Championship, before winning the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1995. He has also won the prestigious Bathurst 1000 touring car endurance race twice, in 1989 and 1994. Both times as co-driver with long-time friend and team-mate Dick Johnson driving for iconic Ford team Dick Johnson Racing.
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[edit] Racing Cars
Bowe began racing Formula Vee in an Elfin 500 in 1971, winning the Tasmanian state title on debut. The following year, he also won the Tasmanian Formula Ford title.[1]
After graduating from domestic Formula Ford racing Bowe moved into the Australian Drivers Championship in the late 70s, racing Elfin Formula 5000s for the most prestigious team of the era, Garrie Cooper's Ansett Elfin Racing. The pinnacle of his Formula 5000 career was finishing runner up in the 1979 Australian Grand Prix driving one of Cooper's Chevrolet V8 powered Elfin MR8s. In the same year he also came second in the Australian Formula 2 Championships. After the collapse of Formula 5000 in the early 80s, Bowe continued with open wheelers racing as a front runner in the burgeoning Formula Pacific category, a renamed version of Formula Atlantic. After playing second fiddle to Alfredo Costanzo for several seasons, Bowe broke through for his first Australian Drivers' Championship in 1984, backing it up the following year with his second title in his Ford powered Ralt RT4.
[edit] Sports Cars
John Bowe drove the Bryan Thompson owned Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC-Chevrolet in Sports Sedan and GT events during the early 1980s when Thompson was in retirement. This stopped when Thompson came out of retirement in 1983. In late 1985 Bowe then was approached by Adelaide based Sports Car racer Bernie Van Elsen to race his new car for the Australian Sports Car Championship (ASCC). The car, built by K&A Engineering in Adelaide and called a Veskanda was powered by a 5.8L Chevrolet V8 and is generally regarded as the fastest Sports Car ever designed and built in Australia. In Bowe's talented hands the Veskanda Chev easily won the 1986 Australian Sports Car Championship with the combination setting outright lap records (often faster than the open wheelers) at circuits around the country.
Bowe and the Veskanda finished second in the 1987 ASCC after reliability troubles and following the season the car was parked as Bowe was moving full time into Touring Car Racing in 1988
Bowe teamed with his Touring Car boss Dick Johnson in the Veskanda in the Sandown 360 in November 1988 which was part of that years World Sports-Prototype Championship. After qualifying 8th the pair finished 87 of the winners 93 laps. Unfortunately the car was disqualified for using more fuel than the rules allowed.
[edit] Touring Cars
In 1985 Bowe joined the Mark Petch backed Volvo 240 Turbo team during the 1985 Australian Endurance Championship, co-driving alongside New Zealander Robbie Francevic at the Sandown Castrol 500 and the James Hardie 1000. While the Volvo was fast, qualifying fifth fastest at Bathurst, it was fragile and did not record a significant finish. Interestingly, Bowe was quicker in the car than Francevic at Bathurst, qualifying the car in third spot for Hardies Hero's but it was lead driver Francevic who set the time in the top ten run-off. During the 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship the new factory-supported Volvo Dealer Racing replaced the Mark Petch outfit and expanded to a second car and Bowe joined Francevic in the team full time for the series fourth round. Francevic went on the win the championship, with Bowe taking eighth place in the series including a pair of third places at Calder Park and Oran Park. Also in 1986 Bowe raced the Veskanda-Chevrolet Sports car owned by Bernie van Elsen and used it to dominate the Australian Sports Car Championship, along the way setting outright lap records at various tracks around the country.
Bowe was became the lead driver of the Volvo team after Francevic parted company with the team shortly after the 1986 Castrol 500, but once again the Volvo proved fragile and unable to effectively threaten for the 1986 endurance races. The team disbanded at the end of the season leaving Bowe without a drive for the 1987 season. He was picked up by the Peter Jackson Nissan Racing team for the 1987 endurance season as a co-driver for young sensation Glenn Seton. The pair finished fourth at Bathurst in the Nissan Skyline RS DR30 and was later promoted to second after the disqualification of the Texaco Eggenberger Ford team.
For the 1988 season Dick Johnson Racing hired Bowe, replacing Gregg Hansford as the teams number two driver in their fast Ford Sierra RS500s. The team had re-engineered the cars after an embarrassing 1987 endurance season. Bowe won his third race for the team at Winton and would go on to win again at Amaroo Park, finishing second in the championship behind Dick Johnson. The pair salvaged a runner up position at Bathurst in the team's third entry after their two primary cars failed during the race. The team also visited the British Tourist Trophy at Silverstone in 1988, taking pole position and smashing their opposition until the car failed.
1989 would prove to be more of the same, again finishing runner up to Johnson after taking victories at Amaroo Park and Wanneroo. The 1989 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst was a triumph for Bowe and Johnson, seeing off all challengers on their way to victory.
Over the next three seasons the Nissan team surged to the fore-front of Australian Touring Car racing and Bowe's only win would come at the Sandown round of the 1992 Australian Touring Car Championship
[edit] V8Supercar
| V8 Supercar Record | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Series Championships | 1 (1995) |
| Races | 225 |
| Round Wins | 15 |
| Podium finishes | 51 |
| Race Wins | 33 |
DJR fortunes reversed in 1993 with the advent of the V8 based regulations that in 1997 would become known as V8 Supercar. The teams new Ford Falcon V8s returned to the front with Bowe winning the first round under the new regulations at Amaroo Park. Bowe would narrowly miss out on second place in the championship. For the 1994 season DJR was initially off the pace until the Sandown 500 where in a race of mixed fortunes Bowe and Johnson won, taking the teams first Sandown 500 win after over 15 years of disappointment. Four weeks later in one of the most dramatic Bathurst 1000s of all time Bowe and Johnson held off a pursuing pack of five Holdens late in the race to win, with Bowe memorably fighting for the lead with teenage debutante Craig Lowndes in the final laps.
The team continued their good form into 1995 where not even the destruction of tyre suppliers Dunlop factory in the Kobe earthquake could stop Bowe from winning the 1995 Australian Touring Car Championship, taking victories at Symmons Plains, a sprint round held at Bathurst for the first time since 1972, Winton and under terrific pressure from Glenn Seton and Peter Brock, the championship finale at Oran Park. The team went on to win back-to-back Sandown 500s but didn't finish at Bathurst after an accident with Glenn Seton while leading stopped their run on lap 110.
Bowe continued to race for DJR for the next three seasons, taking a second sprint victory at Bathurst in 1996, Lakeside in 1997 and Winton in 1998, the last of his 15 Touring Car round victories. Bowe also finished runner up in the 1996 Australian Touring Car Championship and Bathurst 1000 to his young rival from two years prior, Craig Lowndes.
Bowe moved on to Caterpillar backed West Australian team PAE Motorsport seeking a new challenge but before the season was out the team had been sold to Queensland car dealer John Briggs. Despite some early promise he was fired from the team after Bathurst in 2001 with just a single race win at Queensland Raceway in 1999 to show for his efforts.
From 2002-2006 Bowe and new team-mate Brad Jones had mixed fortunes. As with Briggs Motorsport early promise faded as the team struggled to find the resources to regularly threaten the front running teams. Always a threat at Bathurst, Bowe and Jones finished third in 2004 and won the second race in the 2005 Australian Grand Prix non-championship event.
[edit] Retirement
Announcing his retirement, Bowe raced a final season in 2007 for Paul Cruickshank Racing. In March 2007 Bowe broke the record for most championship races starts when he started in round 2 at Barbagello, his 213th start. His race was marred with two spins. His prospects for a glorious final season appear limited as PCR is a single car team and under funded compared to the front running teams. In 2008 Bowe returned to Sports car racing in a Lamborghini Gallardo in the Australian GT Championship, before snagging a full time drive in 2009 with the Touring Car Masters series for historic touring cars, driving a Chevrolet Camaro. 2010 sees John Bowe returning to the Touring Car Masters category driving "Sally", his 1969 Ford Mustang (powered by a Ford 351 Windsor V8 engine), with sponsorship from WesTrac and Wilson Security. Bowe also runs the number 18 on his Mustang, the same number he used when driving for Dick Johnson Racing.
Bowe's name has been lent to the John Bowe Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Formula 3 Tasmanian Super Prix.
[edit] Career results
[edit] References
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Alfredo Costanzo |
Winner of the Australian Drivers' Championship 1984 and 1985 |
Succeeded by Graham Watson |
| Preceded by Tony Longhurst Tomas Mezera |
Winner of the Bathurst 1000 1989 (with Dick Johnson) |
Succeeded by Allan Grice Win Percy |
| Preceded by Larry Perkins Gregg Hansford |
Winner of the Bathurst 1000 1994 (with Dick Johnson) |
Succeeded by Larry Perkins Russell Ingall |
| Preceded by Mark Skaife |
Winner of the Australian Touring Car Championship 1995 |
Succeeded by Craig Lowndes |
| Records | ||
| Preceded by Peter Brock 212 starts (1973 - 2002) |
Most V8 Supercar starts 225 (1986 - 2007) 213th start at the 2007 PlaceMakers V8 Supercars |
Succeeded by incumbent |
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