The Red Bull Ampol squad ended a nine-race winless streak on Sunday when Broc Feeney delivered a measured drive from pole to triumph in the 200-kilometre affair.
He did so ahead of Grove Racing pair Matt Payne and Kai Allen, turning the tables on the form shown at the previous event in Christchurch.
While Feeney left New Zealand with both the Jason Richards Trophy and the championship lead, those spoils came through consistency rather than outright speed.
Instead it was Grove Racing that was head and shoulders above the field, including T8, on pace, particularly at Ruapuna.
Revisiting the topic after Feeney’s Symmons Plains win, Dutton admitted the pace deficit to Grove Racing at Ruapuna left the team “embarrassed” and fuelled an all-hands-on-deck effort to improve heading to Tasmania.
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“We came out of NZ with the consistency, so we achieved the [JR Trophy],” said Dutton.
“We’re happy with that, but we were actually, if we are honest with ourselves, a little bit embarrassed with the difference in car speed to [Grove Racing].
“We had a really good hard look at ourselves, massive debriefs, massive work from every single mechanic, every engineer, the drivers… we worked super hard.
“And then still this weekend, we didn’t roll out strong enough. But we kept chipping away, and [on Sunday] it was really good to win with the fastest car by getting pole and then having a really good race.”
At the same time, Dutton acknowledged that the learning process with the Mustang is not yet complete – and that the Grove Racing threat won’t subside.
“These guys are super quick,” he said of the Groves.
“They definitely have more of a handle on the Mustang than we do currently, so we still have a lot of work to do.”
Grove Racing had its own challenges in Tasmania, including Matt Payne coming into the weekend with an injured wrist after a mountain bike crash.
The team also started the weekend with patchy form, not helped by Kai Allen crashing in qualifying for Race 2.
Even with the double podium to finish the weekend, Grove Racing dropped 58 points to Triple Eight in their fight at the top of the teams’ championship.
Grove Racing boss Brenton Grove still saw that as a sign of strength, given Symmons is traditionally a Triple Eight stronghold and a bogey track for Groves.
He outlined that the team is relishing the battle with Triple Eight at the front of the field, something that is both supremely challenging, but also part of its ambition.
“We designed our business to be at this point,” he said. “So I don’t think it’s anything out of the ordinary for us.
“I mean, it’s obviously taken some time to get here, but Triple Eight has always been the benchmark and it’s nice to put some pressure on them.
“And naturally they respond; it’s going to be like that all season, right?
“So I think we did well this weekend. It’s been the worst track we’ve had since we’ve owned the team, so to think you can go from that to beating T8, who have been the benchmark here for 10 years, is probably unrealistic.
“To be in the fight today and beat one of their cars, I think was nice.
“But ultimately we weren’t the fastest car, and we didn’t win the race. So we’ve got some digging to do.
“I think it’s a nice step to take from from where we were last year, but [Triple Eight is] fast in Darwin, and it’s fast at Townsville, and it’s fast at a lot of other tracks.
“So our job is to keep improving our package and keep putting them under pressure and see what happens, but it’s not often they’ve been put under pressure in the past.
“Our job is to take it to them for the entirety of the season and see where we land.”
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