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Former Shell V-Power Racing Team CEO Ryan Story has been revealed as the man behind the Ford Supercars parity changes which continue to roll out in Sydney this weekend.
The 11 Mustangs in the Repco Supercars Championship field competed at the NTI Townsville 500 earlier this month with a revised aerodynamic package, designed to reduce the loss downforce when the vehicle pitched under brakes.
At the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight, they will race with an 80mm engine throttle body, down from 87mm and now in line with the Chevrolet Camaros, the aim being to refine the package and improve driveability.
Story, who became Non-Executive Chairman of Dick Johnson Racing with the appointment of David Noble as CEO in late-2022, is hardly unfamiliar with parity imbroglios.
He was in charge of the Ford homologation team when the ZB Commodore debuted in 2018 with its lightweight panels, and also in 2019 when the then-new Gen2-spec Mustang dominated the first half of that season.
As Story explained in this week’s Speedcafe Podcast, which will be released in full this afternoon, he swung into action when it became clear at Symmons Plains that there was a parity issue.
“I’ve got runs on the board and some history, I suppose, with parity, in particular when it comes to 2018 and 2019 specifically,” he noted.
“So, I’m just able to bring that experience to the table and it was clear to me after Tassie – and Tassie just being a unique, sub-minute circuit; a couple of big straights, a couple of corners – the microsectors there in particular are quite telling.
“I’ve just made myself available to the team pretty much from that event, just to work with the engineers, to work with management, to work with Ford, to work with the other Ford teams as well, just to get an understanding of where there might be an imbalance and commencing those discussions with Supercars and trying to get the best understanding possible to move forward.
“It’s not a position that we’re unfamiliar with, but I’ve probably got a little bit more experience with it than most in recent times, I suppose.”
While Ford fans – and some drivers – quickly became restless at the dominance of the Camaro, it took until the Hidden Valley event for the conditions of a ‘trigger’ to be met such that Supercars commissioned an official parity review.
They may need to continue to exercise patience, with Story cautioning that the latest changes are not necessarily a silver bullet.
Still, he suggested that those talking down the significance of Anton De Pasquale’s strategy-assisted victory at the NTI Townsville 500, that being the first time this year that a Mustang has been first to the chequered flag, may be hard markers.
“The aim is always to get it right the first time, but you can’t necessarily do that with the processes that we have, and sometimes it takes going racing to really see where you sit,” said Story.
“I think it’s fair to say – and we have been quite open in this – speaking from a Shell V-Power Racing Team perspective, we haven’t had the best of seasons by our own standards.
“We didn’t roll out at Newcastle and weren’t the lead Ford team there, which is the simple test that we run ourselves to; if we haven’t won the race, we want to at least be the first car with a pony badge meeting the chequered flag.
“There’s been a few things that we’ve had to sort out to get our house in order, to be in a position to properly execute some of these changes.
“But a lot of that has come from the fatigue of the process, which included a second VCAT and a lead-up to Newcastle in particular where we’re building three cars, we’re doing all of these things that otherwise wouldn’t normally happen, you’ve got aero tests and you’ve got a group of people who have been working on the prototype for the better part of 18 months…
“It’s a significant investment. We’re talking a multi-million dollar investment and only Triple Eight and DJR have been privy to that, and the other teams haven’t had to cough up the chump change for the pleasure and privilege of being the homologation team.
“But for us, a big part of it is also our responsibility to Ford, our responsibility to Repco Supercars supporters right around Australia and New Zealand… We just have to get it right.
“So, have we got it right? Don’t know yet.
“We won Sunday’s race in Townsville. I know a lot of people put an asterisk next to that around tyres and all those sorts of things, but I discount that a little bit. When you look at Anton’s pace in clear air, it was pretty good.
“I can’t crystallise that to say, ‘Hey, we found something in Townsville and we’ve got this aero tuned out and we’re going to kill it because Sydney has always been a happy hunting ground for us.’
“I could say that; it would be complete nonsense.
“We’re going to Sydney Motorsport Park having learned what we’ve learned with the aero package in particular from Townsville.
“We’ve got a window that we think we believe we can make the car work in, and that’s also taking into account what we know about the track, what we do in simulation, all of those other things.
“So, I’m not sure whether we can park the P word for the rest of season 2023, and we also don’t want to overcorrect.
“It’s one of those very difficult ones where you try to effectively redress the imbalance, get a level playing field, and then hope that the best team wins on the day, and that might take a few more race weekends to play out.”
Support categories are on-track this Friday in Townsville, with the Supercars Championship field heading out for Practice 1 on Saturday at 12:15 local time/AEST.
For much more from Ryan Story, listen to this week’s Speedcafe Podcast, which will be released in full this afternoon
