Gen3 CoG changes ‘not going to make any difference’ says Ryan

The new Camaro centre of gravity changes will make little difference according to Supercars championship-leading team boss, Erebus Motorsport’s Barry Ryan.

Erebus is on top of both the teams’ and drivers’ standings after the opening two events of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship, the latter courtesy of Brodie Kostecki.

It comes after an Albert Park event in which Kostecki scored career-first race wins and Will Brown made for the Coca-Cola-backed outfit’s first two double podiums in its history.

However, it and the other five Chevrolet squads will be forced to shift almost five kilograms of ballast onto a bar near the top of the fuel cell ahead of next week’s Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint.

The change has been made following centre of gravity measurements which took place with a sample of Gen3 Camaros and Ford Mustangs at Tickford Racing’s Campbellfield workshop in the days following the Albert Park event.

A minor, 2.3mm discrepancy was detected, with the ballast shift being announced following a meeting of the Gen3 Technical Working Group in the past 24 hours.

According to Ryan, the predicted real-world effect is 0.007s per lap at a circuit such as next week’s venue, Wanneroo Raceway, and is negligible in practice.

“I’m not concerned at all,” he told Speedcafe.

“If you want to take .007 off every single lap we did for the year, I don’t think it’s going to change anything we’ve done, so I’m not concerned at all.

“I get why [the change has been made], because they see there’s a slight discrepancy between the two cars and we want to make the cars perfect parity is it can be, and that’s as simple as it is.

“Even the Ford guys know it’s not going to make any difference, but mentally it makes a difference to them, to know that they’ve got two mil, and the example of how big two millimetres is, is what people don’t actually understand, I don’t think.

“So, it’s not a concern at all.”

READ MORE: Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess comments on the change

Camaros have been first to the chequered flag in all six races thus far in 2023, although Mustang driver Cameron Waters is the official winner of Race 1 in Newcastle after both Triple Eight Race Engineering cars were disqualified.

No Mustangs were classified on the podium in any of the four encounters at Albert Park, although Tickford Racing’s James Courtney was second across the line in Race 4 and Dick Johnson Racing’s Will Davison likewise in Race 5, before penalties for a driving infringement and unsafe release, respectively.

Asked if he took the parity talk as a slight against his team or the Chevrolet camp in general, Ryan responded, “That’s obviously what they’re looking out for.

“They’re looking for that angle to say that they’ve been affected because they’re not equal.

“But, it’s just so minute that I think the people that matter will understand that it hasn’t made any difference to who’s won what race this year.”