John Bowe

Bowe drove Elfin Formula 5000s for the factory Ansett Team Elfin in the Australian Drivers Championship, finishing runner-up at the 1979 Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park in a Chevrolet V8-powered Elfin MR8. He secured back-to-back Australian Drivers' Championships in 1984 and 1985 driving a Ford-powered Ralt RT4 for Chris Leach under Formula Mondial regulations. At the 1984 Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park he qualified on the front row and led for 18 laps before a loose spark plug ended his challenge; he finished sixth. His final open-wheel appearance was in the Formula Mondial support race at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, where he equalled the Adelaide Street Circuit category lap record at 1:33.20.

From 1985 Bowe drove the Veskanda C1 for Adelaide photographer Bernie Van Elsen, winning the 1986 Australian Sports Car Championship and setting outright lap records at circuits nationwide — often faster than contemporary open-wheelers. He won the final two rounds of the 1987 championship at Amaroo and Sandown Park. At the 1988 Sandown 360 — a World Sports-Prototype Championship round — he co-drove the Veskanda with Dick Johnson; the pair were ultimately disqualified for fuel regulation violations despite running the only Australian car in the field.

Bowe entered the Australian endurance season mid-1985 co-driving a Volvo 240 Turbo for Mark Petch Motorsport, and joined Dick Johnson Racing for 1988, winning at Winton and Amaroo Park and finishing second in the 1988 Australian Touring Car Championship behind Johnson. He and Johnson won the 1989 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst, defeating Eggenberger-built Sierras driven by Klaus Niedzwiedz and Frank Biela. Bowe won the 1995 Australian Touring Car Championship, taking victories at Symmons Plains, a Bathurst sprint round, Winton and Oran Park; DJR also won back-to-back Sandown 500s in 1994 and 1995. He recorded 15 touring car round victories and was runner-up in the 1996 ATCC and 1996 Bathurst 1000 to Craig Lowndes. In March 2007 he broke the championship race starts record with his 213th start.

After retiring from V8 Supercars, Bowe raced a Lamborghini Gallardo in Australian GT (2008) and became a regular in Touring Car Masters from 2009 — winning five championships in historic touring cars. On 9 February 2014 he won the Bathurst 12 Hour co-driving a Ferrari 458 GT3 for Maranello Motorsport alongside Craig Lowndes, Peter Edwards and former Formula One driver Mika Salo. The John Bowe Trophy is awarded to the Formula 3 Tasmanian Super Prix winner.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.