Garwood holds on TCM opener
In a dramatic finale to the Duggan Family Hotels Touring Car Masters opener at Sandown, Adam Garwood held on as Joel Heinrich spun from second.
Garwood won a race-long battle with Heinrich, whose smokey mistake sent him to 13th and promoted Marcus Zukanovic to second.
It also produced a thrilling fight for third won by Jim Pollicina by the barest of margins ahead of Danny Buzadzic, while pole sitter Ryan Hansford retired.
The biggest challenge of the race was the conditions with the entire field racing on wets on a near completely dry track.
At the rolling start Hansford could not fire up the Torana from pole as Garwood flew to the lead ahead of Zukanovic and Buzadzic.
As the newer spec cars charged ahead, Hansford slumped to fifth with Heinrich also getting past.
This time the ZB Commodore could not drive into the distance with Zukanovic’s Falcon right behind, while Buzadzic held onto third despite a wild moment through the Dandenong Road complex.
To compound matters for Hansford, the front left guard of his Torana came loose for the second time of the day.
This allowed both Lillie and Jamie Tilley catch him to set-up a fight for fifth.
By Lap 6, Hansford had little to fight with and retreated to the pits to fix the guard after being passed by Tilley.
Although the Multispares Racing was out of contention, Andrew Fisher tried to throw his Torana around the outside of Lillie at Dandenong Road, but paid the price for the gutsy move and ended up in the gravel.
Further back the Tony Karanfilovski Mustang had even bigger damage on the same part of the track in 11th.
As the race entered the final five minutes and the track dry, drivers were fearing the state of the wet tyres, but this was soon not a worry.
Due to Allan Argento and Dave Hender being stranded at Turns 2 and 7 respectively, the Safety Car was required.
With 20s left on the clock, the race resumed with Garwood trying to keep Heinrich at bay, while Tilley and Buzadzic were having a big battle for fourth.
The #95 Camaro hung it out going through Dandenong Road on the penultimate tour, but this allowed the leader to eke out half a second.
When Heinrich arrived at the complex for the final time, he went as deep as possible and it was too far.
Heinrich lost second with a wild spin, which ensured the stakes in the battle between Pollicina, Buzadzic and Jamie Tilley were significantly raised.
With third now on the line, Buzadzic had a look at Jamie Tilley at the final corner, but contact between the Torana and Mustang opened the door for Pollicina to pounce and he did just that.
Pollicina snatched third by just 0.0304s over Buzadzic.
The Touring Car Masters will have a third race of the day at 15.50 AEST.
Image: James Smith Photographer
Duggan Family Hotels Touring Car Masters Sandown Race 1 results
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