Tickford Racing has been left licking its wounds after a nightmare Race 26 at the BP Ultimate Sydney SuperSprint.

Having started the four-round run at Sydney Motorsport Park firmly on the back foot, the Ford squad made enough gains last weekend to be in a position to now be tinkering with set-ups as opposed to taking drastic swings.

But having seen each of its three drivers qualify mid-pack, things went from bad to worse over the course of this afternoon’s 32-lap race.

Things boiled over on Lap 22 when team-mates Jack Le Brocq and Cameron Waters tangled while squabbling over sixth place with Brad Jones Racing’s Todd Hazelwood.

The result was Waters being fired into the left-hand side fence on the exit of Turn 8, an incident for which Le Brocq was issued a drive-through penalty.

That would leave Waters to limp home in 22nd only after a visit to his crew, while Le Brocq took the flag 20th but would gain a position courtesy of a post-race time penalty dished out to Luke Youlden.

“Well, Jack was just unfortunate that he got caught out,” was the reaction of Tickford CEO Tim Edwards on the Fox Sports broadcast.

“Todd Hazelwood punted Cam wide and unfortunately then Jack obviously got caught out by Cam being off the throttle out of kilt.”

Making matters worse, fellow Tickford steerer James Courtney’s race had already gone awry.

The 2010 Supercars champion was spun on the opening lap as he tussled with Scott Pye and Tim Slade.

Immediately forced to play catch-up, Courtney appeared to delay pitting in a bid to conserve tyres for Sunday’s double dose of qualifying and racing, ultimately bringing home the #44 Boost Mobile Mustang a lap down in 21st.

“We’ve definitely got more car speed but obviously Courtney got punted off on the first corner, so it could not have gone any worse than it has done,” added Edwards.

Tickford Racing’s lead garage shared by Waters and Courtney still holds third in the Supercars teams’ championship, with 112 points in hand to fourth-placed Walkinshaw Andretti United.