Poleman Fisher not worried about clutch dramas

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 22 February 2025

Despite encountering a clutch issue in his Torana, Andrew Fisher still took the first pole of the Duggan Family Hotels Touring Car Masters season and is not concerned it will slow him down in the race.

Fisher drove the Jesus Racing Torana to pole in qualifying for the Sydney Motorsport Park season opener with a 1:38.3059.

His time was two tenths clear of Joel Heinrich and Jude Bargwanna and despite the success, it has not been an easy build up to the Trophy Race in the Jesus Racing garage.

Fisher revealed he has been up past 1am ensuring his SLR5000 Torana will be ready to fight for victory in the opening race of the season today.

“After qualifying we found out we had a clutch issue so we have worked until 1am this morning getting parts to get that fixed. We are all sorted and good to go now,” he told Auto Action.

“We won’t push too hard in the Trophy Race and it should not be an issue in the race.

“I did a second run to try and change it and get more data, but after turn 1 I realised it did not help. Then went back to the pits and that is when I felt the clutch.”

Looking ahead to the race Fisher feels that he should be fine once he gets beyond the start.

“We don’t use the clutch a lot anyway, so we just need to get going,” he said.

“It will be more thinking in terms of foot work when you are not using the clutch on the way down, but either way we should be fine. Rather have the clutch than not have it.”

Fisher said the pole was a nice reward after a busy off season spent getting to know the Torana better having also raced Falcons in recent seasons.

“We worked really hard in the off season and to come out with pace in the car is what it was all about,” he said.

“We have only had custodianship of the Torana for a while, so just understanding it a bit more and we are really happy.

“The roll on the Torana is really important compared to the Falcon which is more of a point and squirt car.

“We were trying to get more balance and manoeuvrability in the car to allow us to get that roll.

“This circuit in particular is one where you want the front nose to be really good.”

The first green light action for the TCM will be the Trophy Race kicking off at 13:25 pm AEDT, whilst Race 1 will come at 16.00.

Image: Touring Car Masters

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Poleman Fisher not worried about clutch dramas

“After qualifying we found out we had a clutch issue so we have worked until 1am this morning getting parts to get that fixed. We are all sorted and good to go now,” he told Auto Action.

“It will be more thinking in terms of foot work when you are not using the clutch on the way down, but either way we should be fine. Rather have the clutch than not have it.”

“We have only had custodianship of the Torana for a while, so just understanding it a bit more and we are really happy.

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