Success at Wanneroo Park: Hansford’s Latest Win
Round 2 of the 2024 Touring Car Masters championship was recently held in Perth at Carco.com.au Raceway.
Ryan arrived in Perth 6th in the points after a delaminated tyre in round 1 resulted in a finish outside the top 10. With the tread missing, Ryan limped the Torana across the finish line, earning some points.
This was Ryan’s first visit to the Wanneroo Park layout in a TCM car, having previously raced there four times in a V8 Ute.
The diff ratio is free in TCM rules, and as there are over 10 ratios to choose from, it would be critical to be close in practice as there were only a couple of hours between practice and qualifying to make a change. Ryan and the team looked at 5 or 6 videos on YouTube of old Supercar races with speeds down the hill into the last corner and decided on a 3.7 ratio to use in practice.
In practice, Ryan was the fastest, just .06 of a second ahead of young hot shot Joel Heinrich in the Camaro.
Qualifying was next and Joel turned the tables and grabbed pole position by .13 of a second. Both he and Ryan held the quickest lap time several times during qualifying and with Steve Johnson and Adam Garwood less than 3 tenths behind it was sure to be a close weekend’s racing.
Race 1 was the best race for Ryan so far this season. After an average start where he dropped back to third, Ryan then made two of the best passing manoeuvres’ that the commentators Craig Lowndes and Matt Nulty had seen at the WA track. He then held on for the win, putting the Multispares Torana in the perfect spot for the last two laps. While grabbing top points was great, sadly for Steve Johnson, he had a DNF with a broken rear spring.
Watch the in car footage from Race 1 – 2024 TCM Round 2 Perth onboard with Ryan Hansford (youtube.com)
The racing between the top 3 cars was outstanding with the crowd and the commentators on their feet. Ryan finished 2nd in both race 2 and race 3.
“That was some of the best battles I have had in TCM,” said Ryan. “Often you battle for a few laps but that was intense pressure and plenty of passing, and defending all race long” he added
“The whole weekend has been fun, even the Trophy race was brilliant coming from the back of the field and just missing out on the win” said Ryan.
You can watch the reverse grid trophy race here – 2024 TCM Rd 2 Trophy Race Ryan Hansford (youtube.com)
After a solid weekend, Ryan has closed the gap to the leader in the points and now sits 2nd overall, with Adam Garwood leading on 356 points, Ryan 327, Joel Heinrich with 308 and Steve Johnson with 303 points.
With two long distance rounds this season, a few cars didn’t make it to Perth but Darwin is next and 20 cars have entered, with more joining at Sydney Motorsport Park in July.
Hidden Valley in Darwin is this weekend, with 3 of the races live on Fox and Kayo, but with some of the Darwin weekend being shown on 7Mate, check your local guides for Free-to-air coverage.
2024 TCM Calendar
| Bathurst 500 ( Feb 23/25 ) Fox TV / Kayo all races plus 1 FTA TV.Perth ( May 17/19 ) Fox TV / Kayo all racesDarwin ( June 14/16 ) Fox TV / Kayo 2 x FTA TV |
Sydney SMSP ( July 19/21 ) Fox TV / Kayo Sandown ( Sept 20/22 ) Fox TV / KayoRd 6 TBA |
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