The famous Ford team was constantly in the headlines throughout Great Race week for a mix of on and off track matters.
It started with a concerted effort on behalf of Ford to have Supercars enact engine parity changes off the back of data proving that the GM V8 has a slight advantage at Bathurst altitude.
That led to crisis meetings between Supercars, DJR, Ford and GM that spilled into Friday.
When the changes were refused, DJR took the extraordinary step of lodging a protest against Supercars to Motorsport Australia which was heard shortly before Saturday’s Top 10 Shootout, and dismissed shortly afterwards.
Amid all of the off-track chaos, DJR driver Brodie Kostecki stormed to both provisional pole and then topped the Shootout in spectacular fashion.
On Sunday the wheels fell off DJR’s Great Race campaign, though, Kostecki and Hazelwood eventually undone by an alternator issue and a clash with Kai Allen when Kostecki out-braked himself into Hell Corner.
That was after the sister car of Will Davison and Tony D’Alberto was already out of the race courtesy of a crash at Forrests Elbow for D’Alberto.
DJR team manager Mark Fenning was at the forefront of much of the parity discussions with Supercars at the circuit, while it was him and team communications boss Paul Riordan that took part in the Motorsport Australia hearing.
Outside of that, though, the team says it did as much as it could to separate the political effort from what was happening in its garages throughout the week and weekend.
“A lot of work goes in behind the scenes, particularly from [Ryan Story], who wasn’t at the track,” DJR CEO David Noble told Speedcafe.
“We quarantined a lot. We got the guys and drivers to just do their work, get on with what you need to do, and leave the rest behind the scenes. And that worked well.
“Drivers are always going to get caught up in it, particularly from a media perspective. But we got to [Sunday] and thought let’s just go racing – it just wasn’t our day.”
Kostecki was undoubtedly at the forefront of the parity war throughout the week, becoming the face of Ford’s grievances via the media – and not for the first time this year.
According to Noble that position of unofficial leader of the Ford driver brigade isn’t something Kostecki has actively sought, rather it is an outcome of both his honesty and competitiveness.
“I think that’s probably a bit appointed externally,” he said.
“I don’t think he’s necessarily taking on that role, I think it’s his honesty. And I think that’s what our fans love about him.
“He’s honest, he’s genuine about his passion for what he wants to do. It comes from a place of massive competitiveness and a strong want to drive and perform for not only himself, but for the team.”
The Bathurst parity storm was somewhat of a last hurrah for DJR and Ford on the political front, with Triple Eight to take over the homologation team duties once this season is finished.
Focussing solely on racing is something that Noble is looking forward to.
“What it allows you to do is to be more competitive,” he said. “You know, create challenges and standards internally as to what makes you a more combative, competitive team on a more regular basis.
“We still have a lot of [homologation team] work to do. We’ve worked tirelessly with Triple Eight for handovers and helping them. We sort of shared engine shop responsibility this weekend.
“So from that side of things we’ve tried to include them in the conversation, which also helps us to not have to be as intensely involved.
“We still have that responsibility of being the HT till the end of the year but we can see some some light at the end of the tunnel.”
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