THE fastest Ford qualifier at the Repco Bathurst 1000 says he’ll need a miracle to catch Chevrolet pacesetter Brodie Kostecki.
Anton De Pasquale muscled his Mustang around the Mountain in 2:04.9667s on Friday afternoon, beaten only by the Camaros of Kostecki and James Golding.
Six Fords qualified for the Top 10 Shootout, giving the Blue Oval its most representatives in the prestigious Saturday session in six years.
But that doesn’t appear to have changed expectations among the Ford camp that they’ll be crushed for speed by the Camaros on race day.
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The #99 Erebus Camaro of Kostecki and co-driver David Russell has been particularly fast, topping three of the five sessions to date.
Asked after qualifying if Kostecki can be caught, De Pasquale said: “Maybe, I don’t know. Unless a miracle happens to our thing overnight, not by us.
“Anything can happen come Sunday, it’s a long race, obviously the cars have to survive first and get through it with no damage. But if all goes clean… we’ll be trying our best.”
When pressed about the apparent competitiveness of the Mustangs against the Camaros in qualifying, De Pasquale added: “I wouldn’t say they’re competitive.
“There’s been a pretty consistently big gap to the fastest of the other brand, whatever fills that in between doesn’t really matter, the gap has been pretty big and consistent.
“Obviously they’re doing an amazing job, but I think we maximised our package today as well. That’s how it is.
“Obviously we’ve read all the other things (about parity), I haven’t been a part of any other stuff, we’ve just been getting on with it, the team has been doing all that side of things.
“I think everyone knows what the situation is, but we can’t change it, so we just get on with it. We’ll run our race and hopefully we end up with the trophy.”
Sitting alongside De Pasquale in the post-qualifying press conference, Kostecki also stressed that he’s not involved in any discussions about parity.
“To be honest I don’t really know too much about it. I haven’t driven a Ford, so I don’t know what they’re like,” he said.
“But I know we have been one of the best Camaro teams all year consistently, close with Triple Eight, and the Fords, there’s been different teams up and down all year.
“That’s all I really know. I can’t really comment on parity and whatever, I don’t really know. Neither does anyone else.”
Although now a strong favourite to secure a maiden Bathurst pole in the Shootout, Kostecki isn’t counting his chickens just yet.
“Nothing comes easy in this sport,” he said.
“I’ve been privileged this weekend to have a really fast car, but there have been times throughout the sessions where it hasn’t been any good at all.
“Just trying to keep up with the track conditions, that’s been quite hard this weekend, the cars are very sensitive, and the window is very small.
“Hopefully we stay on top of it and get it right for the Shootout.”
