Ford Supercars Teams Still Working To Close Performance Gaps

While Chevy Camaros have made themselves right at home in Victory Lane this season, the Ford Supercars teams have been chasing The Bow Tie’s taillights. Parity issues have been a hot topic as of late, and Ford Performance head Mark Rushbrook has taken notice, prompting the sanctioning body to allow aero upgrades in an attempt to level the playing field, although it didn’t have its intended effect on the Mustang race cars. Understandably, The Blue Oval is frustrated, and one team is even considering turning to Chevy if things don’t improve. In the meantime, though, it seems that there might be positive changes around the corner, according to a recent report from Motorsport.

Last weekend at the Bend SuperSprint, a Camaro showed the way to the checkered flag once again, but was tailed by Mustang race cars in second and third across the weekend’s events. This race proved that there might be hope yet for the aero changes that the Ford Supercars teams weren’t overly thrilled with, suggesting that The Blue Oval is getting a handle on race-winning setups.

There are more changes on deck for the Mustang race cars, which are being tested at The Bend. These latest tweaks will hopefully provide insight on rear tire wear, a point of failure more prevalent in the Mustangs than their Camaro competitors.

Additionally, shift cutting appears to give an advantage to the Camaros, as Ford’s current engine setup proved latent against The Bow Tie. However, switching to an 80-millimeter throttle body seems to have solved that disparity. The Ford Supercars competitors have been given a 50 millisecond shift cut offset, while the Camaros will now race with a shift cut of 105 milliseconds, a change that will remain in place through the rest of the season.

However, quite a few drivers in the Ford Supercars stable maintain that aerodynamics are the main point of contention between themselves and the Chevys, not driveline performance.

“We’re fairly confident there are still issues and we know what we did for Townsville was a band-aid and it’s got negative issues with it as well,” said Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards. “Nothing is for free. But we’ve just got rely on Supercars and Ford and all the CFD work that’s going on.”