John Bowe (racing Driver) - Touring Cars

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