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Ford teams will continue to trial engine maps in their Gen3 Mustangs in this week’s Supercars testing.
The five Blue Oval squads collectively ran three different maps in opening practice at the most recent event of the season, at Symmons Plains, including a test calibration which had not been approved at that time for a competitive session (qualifying or race).
Asked by Speedcafe if the experiments will continue in testing this week, Ford Performance Motorsports Global Chief Mark Rushbrook confirmed, “Yes, that is in the plan.”
Practice results from Symmons Plains strongly suggest that the test map was the most competitive of the three, given the three Mustangs which used it were the three fastest, Speedcafe understands.
The five cars on the map which has already been approved for use in qualifying and racing that weekend were the next five fastest, and the three on the Wanneroo map were the three slowest of the 11 Mustangs.
The exact Symmons Plains test map will not necessarily be used this week, although it is likely that some evolution of it based on lessons from that race weekend will be deployed.
Presumably, though, a map which has already been used will be installed for some Mustangs, as something of a ‘control variable’.
There are set to be seven Mustangs in action today at Winton Motor Raceway and two tomorrow at Queensland Raceway.
Tickford Racing took to Winton for a Rookie Test Day yesterday for Declan Fraser and Thomas Randle, with all four of its cars set to be in action today alongside both Mustangs from Walkinshaw Andretti United and the #19 entry from Grove Racing, which will use up another rookie day for Matt Payne.
Given the value in gaining data from multiple circuits, it would stand to reason that homologation team Dick Johnson Racing, the only Ford outfit based in the Sunshine State, would have its Mustangs on different maps to each other in Ipswich tomorrow, although that much has not been confirmed.
As previously reported by Speedcafe, Supercars is looking at running the Mustang and Camaro engines on a transient dynamometer in Melbourne for parity testing purposes, and also has torque sensors on the way, measures to which Rushbrook has given his support.
The map (or ‘calibration’) changes which are taking place, however, are considered temporary measures.
“Certainly, I would say that there has been some progress and there is a sense of urgency to continue to make improvements, both near-term in terms of calibration changes, which I would say are more on the interim containment plan, as well as commitment from the series for torque sensors and transient dyno, which is, unfortunately, longer term,” he said.
“Those things are all long lead and we wish they were in place already, before the start of the season, but at least there are actions in place to have them on hand.”
Chevrolet teams Brad Jones Racing and Erebus Motorsport are also set to cut laps at Winton today, the former testing its four Camaros and the latter conducting a young driver evaluation.
