Ryan: Ford teams need to do a better job

Erebus Motorsport’s Barry Ryan believes that Ford Supercars teams need to simply “do a better job” rather than worry about parity.

Chevrolet teams, including Erebus, continued to dominate at the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, collecting all nine podium finishes and all six front row starts.

However, the Mustang drivers, who were racing with a new engine map, had their moments.

Generally, said moments were enjoyed by Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters, who set the fastest lap in Qualifying for Race 10 (in Part 2 of the session) and might have scored a pole position or two on the following day had he not made contact with both Dick Johnson Racing Mustangs.

Championship leader Brodie Kostecki made that observation at the conclusion of the weekend’s racing at Symmons Plains, saying, “Cam was P1 in all the straight sectors, I’m pretty sure, and he ran into another Ford in every qualifying session.

“So, I don’t really know how they can complain about the parity when they keep running into each other.”

Ryan, Kostecki’s boss at Erebus, told Speedcafe, “Ford showed some really good speed at times this weekend but honestly, all I saw, they kept f***ing up.

“So, if they keep f***ing it up, they can’t keep complaining about parity.

“They had seven of the top seven cars in the straights in [Race 11] so they can’t complain.

“They’ve just got to do a better job, in my opinion.”

While Kostecki remained on top of the drivers’ championship throughout the weekend, it was his team-mate Will Brown who led the way at Symmons Plains.

Brown won two races out of three, including a comprehensive victory by almost four seconds in the weekend finale, and finished third in the other.

Kostecki rounded out the podium in Race 12, but was made to earn it when he had to re-pass 2022 champion Shane van Gisbergen.

“Especially in that last race, we made some good changes to [Brown’s] car and made some good changes to Brodie’s too,” said Ryan.

“But, [Kostecki’s] second set of tyres just didn’t work real good; they took half a stint to get going for some reason, which is strange.

“But anyway, it was good to see Brodie fight back and pass Shane back, which doesn’t happen much.

“You don’t get many people getting passed by Shane and then pass him back, so it’s good.

“It’s really good for the championship and for Brodie’s and our confidence that we can beat Shane.”

Brown was the unofficial ‘round winner’ while Kostecki finished fourth-best on that metric, despite getting home six laps down in 23rd position in Race 10.

The #99 Coca-Cola Camaro pilot was the innocent victim in a Lap 3 melee when he was nudged wide by Jack Le Brocq into Brambles Hairpin and then knocked into the fence as Cameron Waters capitalised, although officials opted to take no further action.

“Cam Waters took advantage of a situation that Brodie got stuck in with Jack pushing him into the corner,” recounted Ryan.

“There was no room for Brodie so I don’t know what he was actually going to do, but we decided not to argue that one and just cop it on the chin and press on.”

Kostecki leads Brown by 87 points at the top of the drivers’ championship, while Erebus’s lead over Triple Eight Race Engineering in the teams’ championship has grown to 276 points.

The next event is the Betr Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley on June 16-18.

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