Ryan Walkinshaw has lashed back at former Triple Eight Race Engineering co-founder and former owner, Roland Dane, over a difference of opinion after Dane’s commentary on the ongoing Supercars Gen3 parity debate.
“The mental gymnastics on show here are hilarious,” said the Walkinshaw Andretti United team boss, who went on to describe Dane’s assertions that the current performance of the two leading Supercars teams – Erebus Motorsport and Triple Eight Race Engineering – as separate from the fact that both run Chevrolet Camaros.
Read: Mostert tests with Bathurst 12 Hour winner at Spa.
Dane points to the team’s performance – most notably their consistency – as the reason for their success rather than the fact that both run General Motors entries.
Rivals, suggests Dane, Ford or otherwise, simply have not been able to match the constant sporting (as opposed to technical) performance of the leading teams.
More: Roland’s View: Tassie Wrap Up.
Walkinshaw, whose team switched to the Ford Mustang with support of Ford Australia for the 2023 season onwards, took to social media to describe Dane’s viewpoint as disingenuous.
“Roland is demonstrably [sic] and quantifiably wrong,” Walkinshaw wrote. “This is a purposefully dishonest take and should be called out as such. The fans deserve not to be lied and manipulated to like this.”
That follows on from comments by Erebus Motorsport boss, Barry Ryan, that “Ford teams need to do better” during the Team Principals’ media conference at last weekend’s Round 4 of the Supercars Championship at Symmons Plains, Tasmania.
It’s clear that the parity debate in Supercars since the introduction of Gen3 at the start of this year’s championship has not yet subsided, and arguably peaked pre-season when Ford Performance global head of motorsport, Mark Rushbrook, criticised Supercars for its ‘lack of transparency’ through multiple VCAT and aerodynamic tests.
The mental gymnastics on show here are hilarious. Roland is demonstrably and quantifiably wrong. This is a purposefully dishonest take and should be called out as such. The fans deserve not to be lied and manipulated to like this. https://t.co/i02UxYfpoT
— Ryan (@RyanWalkinshaw) May 24, 2023
At last weekend’s Tasmania round, where Ford teams tested a number of different engine maps, Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters asserted that he aimed to be the fastest of the Fords – a comment he also made at the previous round in Perth as he seemed to suggest the Camaros cannot be beaten – and that he felt he was “in gunfight with a knife”.
Championship leader Brodie Kostecki hit back, suggesting Waters had “plenty of power in that Ford Mustang” as the war of words continued.
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