DICK Johnson has vowed that his team will “keep fighting” for parity in Supercars, amid a politically-charged build-up to the Repco Bathurst 1000.
The lead-in to the 60th anniversary Great Race has been overshadowed by uncertainty over whether Ford’s proposed aerodynamic upgrade kit would gain approval.
Ford teams produced their desired parts and brought them to the circuit, where a series of high-level meetings took place on Wednesday.
Johnson faced the media on Thursday morning as part of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of his first start in the Great Race.
Speaking moments before it was revealed that the upgrades had been rejected, Johnson gave a cryptic response to the saga.
Asked what he makes of the parity situation, Johnson said: “Most pregnant women go to hospital when they’re ready to have a baby, but the baby hasn’t been born yet.”
As for whether the Ford teams need the upgrades in order to have a chance of victory on Sunday, Johnson distanced himself from the discussions.
“I don’t want to get involved in any of the parity stuff, that’s well beyond my expectations of where it’s all going to go,” he said.
“But I’m sure that at the end of the day we’ll keep fighting until we get to the point to where everything is the way it’s supposed to be.
“It’s supposed to be a parity formula and when we get the right stuff there with aero testing and things like that the proper way, then we’ll all be happy.”
Ford has won just two of the 23 races so far this season despite a number of tweaks to the Mustangs, including an aerodynamic change in the lead-up to the Townsville round in July.
Supercars is preparing to take two Gen3 Supercars to the United States at the end of the current season for aerodynamic testing in a wind tunnel.
Transient dyno testing of the Chevrolet and Ford engines is meanwhile expected to take place as early as this month.
Although none of that helps the Ford runners this weekend, Johnson noted that nothing is guaranteed at Bathurst.
“This race is probably the most unpredictable race on the whole of the calendar because of the length of it, the weather, the number of things that are thrown at it, you can’t second-guess anything,” he said.
“I’m not suggesting there’s any one favourite, but we’ll know when the flag drops at the end of Sunday.”
