FORD featured a little more prominently at the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight but the parity saga is not done yet.
In terms of across-the-line results, Mustang drivers would have accounted for three of the six podium placings across the weekend, if not for Cam Waters’ controversial penalty in Race 1.
But for Ben Croke, team principal of Ford homologation team Dick Johnson Racing, the answer was simple when asked if the Mustang was fixed.
“No,” he responded.
The latest change made to the Ford prior to Sydney Motorsport Park was a move to a smaller throttle body, which the likes of Chaz Mostert reported to improve driveability.
Tyre life did seem better on the Mustang than before, with one case in point being how Anton De Pasquale ran down fellow early stopper Broc Feeney to snatch third in Race 2.
But other problems remain, including a supposed straight-line speed deficit that has Ford teams concerned for Sandown, as well as general set-up difficulties.
“It’s the smallest working window that we have probably ever seen, where the Mustang is at the moment,” Croke elaborated.
“We have been fortunate enough to get it a couple of times the last few rounds with Will (Davison) in Darwin, Anton in Townsville and then Anton again today, but it can go wrong so quickly for us at the moment.”
He later added: “There has been a few shining lights but it’s still not a lot of blue very high up on the leaderboard in quali or races at the moment.
“Why that is? It probably goes back to what I said before: it’s a very small working window for where our car is at the moment. It’s really hard to find.”
Tickford Racing team principal Tim Edwards said post-event that “we’ve still clearly got some issues” and “we absolutely are not where we want to be.”
His Walkinshaw Andretti United counterpart Bruce Stewart shared a similar view.
“We feel we’re getting a better understanding of the car, but there are still challenges,” said Stewart.
“The sport is working to overcome those challenges and we’re expecting that to become a little more obvious in South Australia for the next round of the series.”
Chevrolet teams meanwhile debuted an updated engine map in Sydney that had initially been scheduled for introduction at the Darwin Triple Crown.
“(We had) some engine mapping stuff that was scheduled to be rolled out at Darwin but we delayed it so we gave teams more time and to make sure that the rollout was smoother,” explained Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton.
“It had tried to be rolled out during (Darwin) practice but didn’t go according to plan so it was rolled out this weekend.”
