Ryan Hansford and his Multispares Torana will hit the track around the streets of Newcastle this Friday for the final round of the 2017 Touring Car Masters series. (TCM)
It has been a brilliant first season in TCM for the Multispares racing team.
With uncertainty regarding the direction of Ute racing in Australia after 3 seasons in V8 Utes, it was decided in February to change direction. TCM is very popular; the cars are classic and the fit felt right for the team, Multispares and its customers.
Peters Motorsport quickly scoured the country and purchased the ex Carey McMahon SLR5000 which had undergone a rebuild after a heavy crash in Adelaide and with just three weeks gave the Torana a new look and Ryan did 30 laps at Queensland Raceway just to make sure everything felt ok.
The team arrived in Adelaide for the first round and it was soon obvious that the fans were happy to see the lanky 2nd generation Hansford driving a 600+BHP Chev powered Aussie classic. The crowd in the paddock and the fans on social media was huge and it wasn’t long before everyone realized that Ryan was going to be a force after being 3rd fastest in the first practice.
Ryan was competitive, consistently running in the top 4 cars all weekend and had it not been for one DNF after a bracket in the steering sheared off, he would have been on the podium. A great start to the season.
Round 2 in rural Victoria at Winton raceway started wet and Ryan was quickest in both wet practice sessions and finished 3rd for the weekend.
Round 3 was at Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin and the team was plagued by a power steering drama, but the crew didn’t give in and Ryan finished some races with no power steering but kept the points ticking over and finished 8th.
Round 4 was on home turf and Queensland Raceway and Ryan was so close to a race and round win but finished 2nd overall and 1st in his Pro Am class. It was the best race of the year and had the Supercar crowd on their feet.
Round 5 was at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne and once again Ryan was on the podium finishing 3rd, behind the ultra-experienced John Bowe and Steve Johnson who have dominated the series.
Round 6 was in Bathurst around the world famous Mt Panorama circuit and Ryan drove his heart out all weekend and finished 6th. It’s all about horsepower at Bathurst and the Multispares Torana just lacked that top end grunt.
Heading to Newcastle this weekend Ryan sits 2nd in the Pro Am class and 4th overall. The Pro Masters class is for drivers that have or do make an income from Motorsport, but Ryan is a builder and drives as a hobby, so falls in the Pro Am (amateur) class. With a podium virtually sealed for the Pro Am class Ryan is going all out this weekend hoping to finish the year 3rd.
Read More: Hansford Looking To Home Track Advantage