Most Supercars teams have returned to Sydney Motorsport Park on Monday for sponsor rides following the weekend’s Sydney 500.
Cam Waters’ co-driver Mark Winterbottom was at the wheel of the #6 Mustang when a failure occurred late in the morning.
It follows a weekend in which Waters drove the car to a clean sweep of pole positions and race wins.
“It was very lucky. It would have ruined a perfect weekend [had it happened a day earlier],” Tickford team manager Matt Roberts told Speedcafe.
“Fortunately, ‘Frosty’ was driving and he felt a wicked vibration and immediately shut it off before terminal damage.”
While Roberts was reluctant to detail what exactly had failed, he affirmed it was not a repeat of the crankshaft failures experienced during a Sandown ride day last year.
“It’s new,” Roberts said. “We haven’t seen this component failure since we’ve been running this motor.”
Speedcafe understands the Tickford drivers had been told not to use the pit lane speed limiter or stress the engines on pit exit during the ride day.
Tickford will run the remainder of its rides today in Thomas Randle’s Castrol Mustang.
Ford engines are currently a major talking point in the Supercars paddock, with Triple Eight’s plan to have KRE take over the supply deal from Motorsport Powertrains receiving significant pushback.
Motorsport Powertrains is controlled by Dick Johnson Racing, which will lose its homologation team status to Triple Eight next season when the Chevrolet powerhouse switches to Ford.
