Duggan family deepens TCM ties with Bargwanna drive

Interest has been building ahead of 2025 Touring Car Masters (TCM) series kick-off at next week’s Supercars Sydney 500 round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

 The TCM series will begin the year with backing from the Duggan Family Hotels (DFH) group, who have also invested in a TCM car of their own for the 2025 season.

 The Duggan family have stepped up their involvement, with increased sponsorship via Duggan Family Hotels and a big on-track presence with the purchasing of last year’s championship winning VB Commodore, which was driven by Adam Garwood.

DFH will continue the support of the #85 Whitleine Racing-Chevrolet Camaro RS driven by Scott Cameron who raced for the team in 2024.

As a third overall car for the Duggan Family Racing team, this year the rebranded TCM Commodore will hit the track with Carlton United Breweries (CUB) as its main sponsor, and 20-year-old Jude Bargwanna as its pilot.

Both TCM machines were unveiled at the family owned DFH Pendle Inn Hotel, alongside the Vic Bitter sponsored Aston Martin-Sports Sedan of Mark Duggan, and the Cameron Camaro.

 Auto Action spoke with the racing team manager Ellie Duggan, as well as Jude ahead of a huge Round 1 at SMP where Duggan Family Hotels be the round naming sponsor in its hometown race.

The DFH fleet featuring a Mark Duggan Aston Martin sports sedan, Jude Bargwanna’s TCM Commodore and Scott Cameron’s TCM Camaro. image: Supplied

 “Last year we started paying a lot more attention to TCM. We were very interested and impressed by its growth in 2024, and with five Supercar rounds we just knew that was the direction we wanted to put Duggan Family Racing into,” Ellie told AA.

 “We’re so excited to be blending in with TCM, we really like everyone involved in the category, so we’re really charging into it. It’s such a big crowd-pleaser, and our intention is to add to the category in any way we possibly can.”

 “We looked at multiple cars last year and the series winning Commodore was very appealing, so we struck a deal and the car was delivered in pristine condition.

 “I very quickly got onto our major sponsor for my dad’s Aston Martin and they were impressed with our direction, which then got us a big Carlton brand.

 “And after being introduced to Jude to through our engine builder Peter Wallace, we spent some time with him and his family at the Bathurst 12 Hour, and we were incredibly impressed with his professionalism.” Duggan told AA.

 There will also be a corporate event at the weekend involving the Pendle Inn Hotel V8 Supercar Club members, a 450-member strong club that operates out of the DFH run venue 10 minutes from SMP.

 The V8 Club also has pride of place on the Commodore and Camaro livery.

 Bargwanna is equally excited to be stepping into TCM in a title-winning machine.

Jude Bargwanna will drive the championship winning VB Commodore. Image: TCM

 “It doesn’t get much better than jumping into a championship-winning car and with such a great crew. It wasn’t an opportunity you could pass up, with the Duggan’s and with the backing of a big CUB brand.” the 2023 Australian V8 Touring Cars Series champion said.

 “Growing up as kids we were always around historic race cars – our family legacy started with my grandfather racing a Torana. 

 “We tested on Tuesday last week, so it was good to get comfy in the car after having not driven that much last year. It was definitely a wild beast.

“There’s a lot of horsepower and not a lot of tyre grip. It was great to put it on the edge with a qualifying simulation run.” Bargwanna said.

 “It’s a great category with passionate fans so I feel very privileged to do it with such amazing support.

 “For me, coming back to the national level in a fun family atmosphere that still takes its racing very seriously is a very pretty cool feeling.”

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