SUPERCARS team owner Brad Jones has hinted at games being played by Ford teams following an afternoon Sydney Motorsport Park session dominated by Chevrolet.
Camaros accounted for 11 of the top 12 spots on the leaderboard at the second half of today’s official pre-season test attending by all teams.
BJR led the way with Andre Heimgartner topping both sessions and his teammates Macauley Jones, Jack Smith and Bryce Fullwood finishing fourth through sixth in the afternoon.
Todd Hazelwood (ninth) of the Blanchard Racing Team was the only Ford driver in the top 12, as Supercars and its homologation teams prepare for a condensed VCAT re-run next week to verify parity.
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“For us it has been a great day. To be able to have our four cars in the top 10 is a great result,” Jones told V8 Sleuth.
“It’s a little bit disappointing though that I feel like not everyone put their best foot forward.
“With the inclement weather, not everyone had to run green tyres and there’s plenty of people I think that didn’t bother.
“So it’s probably not a great indicator of where everyone is but I feel that certainly from our perspective we had a serious dip at today.”
Jones believes the games will stop once points are on the line at Newcastle and nevertheless feels his crew are as best prepared as possible for Round 1.
“I feel like we’re in a really good spot: Andre was fast and having the other cars up there or thereabouts is reassuring as well,” he reiterated.
“But as I said, it’s the first official test day and for not everyone to have a serious go at it is a little frustrating.”
Triple Eight Race Engineering team manager Mark Dutton observed a difference in tyre usage which may have contributed to the skewed timesheets.
“I didn’t see any Mustangs roll out on super softs but I saw a bunch of Camaros on super softs, so clearly, boom, they’re up to the top,” Dutton told V8 Sleuth.
Triple Eight finished the afternoon session with Shane van Gisbergen seventh and Broc Feeney 10th.
