Parity deficit compounds Grove Bathurst struggle

The Penrite-backed squad bucked its front-running ways in qualifying for the Great Race with neither of its Mustangs making the Shootout.

Instead, Matt Payne and Garth Tander will start the race from 18th while Kai Allen and Dale Wood banked the 21st grid slot.

While confident the cars are out of position in terms of race pace, Grove CEO Brenton Grove is predicting it will be tough to make progress against the Camaros.

“We’ve made our life harder; we’ve not qualified well and that’s on us,” Grove told Speedcafe.

“But when you don’t have track position and you have an engine deficit, it makes it very hard to recover.

“You’ve got to be quite clever with strategy and even then it’s quite hard because you can’t pass.

“Even if you have track position early on, it’s hard to keep because you’re in the pack and they can come past. So it’s going to be a long day.”

The Gen3 parity war has hit new heights this weekend with Supercars on Friday ruling out granting a change to the Ford engine package.

The change was suggested by the series itself and was based on brand new barometric dyno testing that confirmed beyond doubt that the Ford engine is down on power compared to the GM V8 at the top of the rev range at Bathurst altitude.

The change required sign-off from GM, though, which unsurprisingly wasn’t granted.

A second solution that didn’t need GM approval was proposed to Ford and its homologation team Dick Johnson Racing, but was rejected.

Mark Skaife slams Ford’s Bathurst 1000 parity ‘games’

The barometric study follows two years of concerns from Ford that its engine struggles at Bathurst altitude, something that Grove finds vindicating.

At the same time, he is critical of the Supercars process that prohibits the change being made without GM approval.

“We don’t make things up, we go off the information we have which is somewhat limited, but it’s micros that were used in the old parity formula to calculate the issues,” he explained.

“So to then see a well-run test, on a Supercars letterhead, show that there is a deficit gives us a bit of comfort that what we’re talking about is right.

“The shame is we don’t react and deal with it to bring everybody onto a level playing field for the biggest race of the year.”

Grove added that there are no ill feelings towards GM over the matter.

“It’s certainly not a slight on GM,” he said.

“GM has built a well-built car and a very good engine. But they would be doing exactly what we are doing if we had an advantage.

“The frustrating part for Ford is that we’re three years in and this is the third Bathurst where we don’t have a level playing field to fight on, and the process hasn’t changed to accomodate that.

“There are mechanisms that can be used to change it, and they haven’t been used. And now we’re going into a race with a deficit.

“Whatever that deficit ends up being, it’s a deficit. Whether it’s a tenth or a hundredth, it’s a deficit and when you multiply it by 161 laps, good luck trying to get that back.”