DICK Johnson Racing is not getting too carried away with daring to dream about conquering Mount Panorama, cognisant that Chevrolet’s top cars at Tailem Bend encountered trouble.

It was a Ford 1-2-3 at The Bend 500 led by the #38 Shell V-Power Racing Mustang of Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood.

Will Brown/Scott Pye were the top Camaro pairing in fourth, having been forced to recover from a disastrous Saturday.

Their Triple Eight teammates, Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup, started from pole position but were taken out of contention relatively early by a refuelling mishap.

“It’s one race. We’re delighted and very, very happy with the win, but it’s one race,” DJR majority owner Brett Ralph told V8 Sleuth.

Brett Ralph. Pic: Mark Walker

“So as a team we need to back it up again. There’s still a lot of work to be done.

“I mean, this is a track that has traditionally been good to us and… Triple Eight had a problem with the fuel rig which ruined their race. You pluck time lost there back in and they’re probably right in the mix still.”

Kostecki had made similar observations post-race.

“I’m not really too sure to be honest,” he said when asked if he now felt more confident about his Repco Bathurst 1000 chances.

“I think there was a lot of issues from other teams in the race. I saw there was a fuelling issue on #88 and I think Cam Hill’s car, Cammy McLeod drove off.

“Those cars were quite quick in the race, so not really too sure to be honest. We’ll just have to see once we get there.”

Supercars has done its level best to address Ford parity concerns ahead of the Great Race, approving a Mustang aero change earlier this month targeted at improving straight-line speed and committing to barometric testing on engines.

“In the Gen3 era we have been at a distinct disadvantage at Bathurst, which nobody disputes,” said Ralph.

“All parties – Supercars, GM, Ford – all agree that we have agreed is a 2km/h deficit there and so far there’d been very little done to overcome that.

“But as always, there has been good faith to look at how we address that… it’s a very different track there and we all want competitive racing and entertainment for the fans.”