Supercars is set for further parity testing at The Bend after this weekend’s OTR SuperSprint.
Speedcafe understands that two Ford Mustangs and two Chevrolet Camaros will cut laps of the South Australian circuit on Monday, and that aerodynamics will be the focus.
The latest Mustang aerodynamic package is only three events old this weekend, having debuted in competition at the NTI Townsville 500 after an official parity review.
While Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale won Race 17 on the Sunday in North Queensland, the formline has still made for far better reading for the Camaro over the Mustang since the bodywork tweaks were implemented.
Walkinshaw Andretti United Team Principal Bruce Stewart, who oversees top-ranked Ford driver Chaz Mostert, is among those to have publicly raised concerns about a possible drag disparity, in comments made ahead of track activity at The Bend.
He also alluded to the fact that such a disparity would manifest itself in a substantial way come the enduros at Sandown and Bathurst, circuits which both feature two long straights.
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“I think drag is a thing that the Ford teams will be looking at, and straight line speed, and I think we’ll get a bit of a sample of that here,” said Stewart.
“So, certainly when you’re looking forward at Conrod Straight and going up Mountain Straight, you want to have straight-line speed [because] it’s pretty difficult to pass across the top.
“So, certainly it’s something, I think, anyone in a Mustang will be wary of.”
The Bend would be a handy venue for aerodynamic work, given it has a long straight but also a number of long corners, and it is believed that Cameron Waters and/or his Tickford Racing Mustang as well as at least one of the Triple Eight Race Engineering Camaros will stay on Monday as part of the activity.
DJR’s Will Davison ended up third yet, in his attempts to be diplomatic during his post-session television interview, did express a level of pessimism about what lays ahead this weekend.
“Not getting too drawn into where we’re at now,” he said.
“For us, it’s just concentrating on what we can focus on, so, certainly not getting ahead of ourselves.
“We’ll just focus on what we can control on the car now and we’re obviously going to lots of different circuits, lots of different surfaces…
“There’s obviously been a balance shift which was publicised; we all know about [it].
“It did change the balance of the car a little bit.
“With the long, loaded corners here [and] it is a very high-grip surface, but it is always a track that often induces oversteer in the car, so it looks like it’s low-grip but it’s not; we’re just sideways.
“But generally, corner speed’s quite high; it’s just that sort of a balanced circuit.
“All in all, it wasn’t too bad. I think we’re trying some drastic stuff and I think we’re starting to get our head around the philosophy we want to run our car, and we definitely need to tune it a bit, but it was a really interesting session for our point of view.
“We’re okay; we’re not getting ahead of ourselves by any stretch, but it was a reasonable start for us.”
As the interview was wrapped up, he added, laughing, “We get found out in the race this arvo, so I’ll just say less.”
Practice 2 starts at 11:40 local time/12:10 AEST.
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