FORD flyer Cam Waters’ plan for Sunday’s Repco Bathurst 1000 can be summed up in two words.
Rag it.
The plight of the Mustangs has been the story of the week at Mount Panorama, even before the cars hit the track.
A rejection of a last-gasp parity plea just hours before opening practice set the tone for a Great Race in which the Ford drivers feel they have little chance of winning.
Waters put in a typically committed lap in the Top 10 Shootout to record the third-fastest time, only 0.0226s away from preventing a Camaro front-row lockout.
The Tickford Mustang was just 0.0926s slower than pole-sitter Brodie Kostecki through the middle sector across the Mountain, but 0.5056s adrift over the entire lap.
“That was me tapped, there was nothing else in that,” said Waters, who has finished on the Great Race podium in each of the last three years but is still chasing a maiden Bathurst win.
REPORT: Kostecki soars to Bathurst 1000 pole
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Waters is expecting a battle on two fronts in the race.
Outright speed and tyre life – which has been the biggest bugbear for the Fords over the entire season – are both of concern.
Of the speed deficit, he said: “If I drive around in the slipstream all day, I think it’d help me quite a lot.
“I think it was three or four tenths down the straights, that was a big chunk of my time.”
And over a race distance?
“It’s been the story of the year, hasn’t it? Over the race distance we’re nowhere,” said Waters, who shares the #6 entry with James Moffat.
“I can’t really answer that question, I’m not really sure. I still think we’ve got dramas and race pace dramas.
“Hopefully we have a bit of luck tomorrow. I’ll rag the thing for the time that I’m in the car and Moff does the same, and hopefully something happens.”
Six Mustangs contested the Top 10 Shootout, with Anton De Pasquale fifth, and David Reynolds, Matthew Payne, Chaz Mostert and Will Davison filling seventh through 10th.
Representatives from Ford and several of its teams were seen meeting in the paddock following the Shootout, as discontent over the parity saga continues.
