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. Two of these records will stand forever as the tracks are now closed. The two are Amaroo Park in Sydney (set in 1987, track closed in 1998) and the Surfers Paradise International Raceway (set in 1986, the same year as the tracks closure).
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 year's 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.
Read more about this topic: John Bowe (racing Driver)
Famous quotes containing the words sports and/or cars:
“It is usual for a Man who loves Country Sports to preserve the Game in his own Grounds, and divert himself upon those that belong to his Neighbour.”
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