FISHER LEFT FRUSTRATED AFTER WINTON INCIDENT

The New South Welshman kicked off the weekend’s Gulf Western Oil Touring Car Masters Series action on a high, with an impressive seventh-place finish in qualifying without any power steering in his Holden Torana A9X

Fisher then converted his reverse grid Trophy Race pole position into the weekend’s first win on Saturday morning.

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“We had a power steering failure when we first showed up at Winton, we pretty much missed practice one and had to qualify without it which was quite an effort. It was a disappointing way to start the weekend,” Fisher said.

“We ended up going back to Melbourne on Friday night and pulling a whole system out of another car.

“The good news story from that was being given pole position in the Trophy Race, which we were able to take advantage of and win.”

With a first round win in his sights, Fisher worked his way up to fourth place in race one, before he found himself within seconds of a fight for the race lead with series leader Steve Johnson in race two.

With the 55-year-old significantly faster than the race leader, the lead looked imminent for Fisher before getting spun – dropping him to the back of the pack as a result.

“Getting turned around sent me right down to the back of the grid. Because of this, we were playing catch up for the remainder of the weekend.” Fisher explained.

“It is what it is, and we all make mistakes but it would be nice if someone actually apologised for turning you around. But that doesn’t seem to happen these days.

“It does makes you wonder at times.”

Fisher worked his way back through the grid to finish seventh in race two, being promoted into sixth ahead of the final race of the weekend.

But while spectators were treated to a classic fight to the line between Johnson and John Bowe in race three, Fisher was unable to get himself involved – finding himself six seconds back in third place by the time he worked his way to the front.

While the result handed him a second place on the weekend’s outright podium, Fisher understandably remained frustrated with the situation.

“By the time I worked my way back up in race three, Steven Johnson and John Bowe were already too far away,” Fisher said.

“Johnson is dominating at the moment – even with his revs being taken away from him – so if we can’t beat him now, then we are never going to be able to.

“In a lot of ways it feels like we are just gifting wins to Johnson. I had the pace to get him but unfortunately we got turned around, giving Johnson another free pass.

“If we can all stop running into each other one of us is going to beat him.

“Johnson is a great driver in a great car, and he doesn’t make mistakes. It’s great having him in the category and I have a lot of respect for him, but to be fair no one is going to turn him or Bowe around like what happened to me.

“It’s just something the rest of us live with, but it makes it more difficult.”

Fisher will have another opportunity at the round win when the series takes part of the Repco Supercars round at The Bend Motorsport Park on 18-20 August.