TICKFORD Racing driver James Courtney has expressed confidence that Supercars’ parity saga will soon be sorted.
The divisive debate exploded in the 48 hours after the all-in Sydney Motorsport Park test on Wednesday, with Ford and its teams insisting the Chevrolet Camaro holds an advantage.
Mustang-shod David Reynolds (Grove Racing) yesterday unloaded on the matter, saying “we’re fighting against another car with one arm tied behind our back.”
Courtney, who won the 2010 championship with the Blue Oval before becoming a factory Holden driver, said a fix is needed before the Newcastle season-opener and is hopeful that the upcoming aero test at Temora will deliver that.
“We’re going back to VCAT so it highlights that there is an issue and as a championship they’re addressing it,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“They still haven’t agreed on the CoG (centre of gravity) as yet and the car weight so I think once we can achieve that and confirm the aero numbers this week, gelled with the engine side of things…
“I think that Blind Freddie can see it needs to be addressed. As a championship they are working as we speak and will address that as best they can in the timeframe we have got going into Newcastle.
“I don’t think it will go in the way it is at the moment.
“Some teams weren’t running any weight, some teams were full weight, some teams weren’t running engine ballast, so I don’t think you can really take a whole heap from the test but I think there is still something there that needs to be addressed and that Supercars are tackling.”
Courtney was involved in a driver swap last month at Queensland Raceway, testing the Camaro prototype while Shane van Gisbergen jumped in the Ford Mustang.
“There’s definitely a difference, there’s quite a big difference,” said Courtney.
“That’s why they did all of that extra tuning on the dyno and the Ford engines got a little change and the Camaro going into that test to just help with that parity side of things.
“That’s why also after the test Shane and I did that they’re redoing the VCAT, and they were always planning to do the CoG.
“If you remember back when the Mustang came in (in 2019) how crazy that was and when they slid the weight up on the rollhoop how it slowed it up quite a bit, I think you will probably see something like that happening in the next couple of days or week in the lead-up to Newcastle.”
