Dick Johnson Racing driver Brodie Kostecki (left) and Supercars TV commentator Mark Larkham.
Qualifying pacesetter Kostecki slammed Supercars’ parity process on Friday after Ford was denied an engine upgrade by GM ahead of the Great Race.
The proposal was put forward by Supercars after a dyno testing study showed the Ford engine to be at a deficit to the GM at altitude.
Track data has shown the Fords to lag behind the Camaros by around 2km/h at various circuits – an issue Supercars attempted to fix with an aerodynamic upgrade ahead of the previous round.
Larkham started his interview with Kostecki by mentioning “there’s been some changes for the Mustang this weekend, mainly aerodynamic changes.”
While the pre-Bend changes were in fact aimed at helping the Fords for Bathurst, Kostecki replied blankly, “what are the changes for this weekend?”
Kostecki continued: “We put our best efforts forward from the directive of the category on what areas to focus in but it’s pretty evident where the problem lies.
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“There’s a separate issue coming to this event being it’s up at altitude.
“It’s very, very technical but their technical department published a paper, and nothing has been done about it so we’re still seeing a deficit down the straights.”
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Larkham then challenged Kostecki on the straight line speed debate, pointing out the DJR Mustang was quicker than Broc Feeney’s Camaro on the straights during their qualifying laps.
Feeney was the second-faster qualifier, just 0.0064s slower than Kostecki across the 6.21km lap in a session where five Fords and five Chevrolets qualified for the Top 10 Shootout.
“Brodie, I’ve got to say to you, and mate, I don’t like saying it to you, but I’ve been studying Motec data overnight because we’re doing some stories,” said Larkham.
“In that qualifying run yesterday – and I’m sure there’ll be an explanation for it – but you were quicker than Broc Feeney down the straight and up the hill.
“I don’t know where he had his wing set and you’ve got your wing set, but that’s a fact.”
Then Kostecki bit back.
“There’s also another fact too, you’ve done three pieces to camera stating how close the parity is, but we keep getting adjustments,” he said.
“At the end of the day, there still is a deficit.
“I’ve pretty been vocal from day one that there have been differences, spoken out on my podcast that coming here, the Camaro has had an advantage.
“It just needs to be fixed. It’s unfair for the fans. Last year was a race that was won by two Camaros and was quite lacklustre at the end of the day.
“You want as many cars as possible contending for the win to make the race exciting. The category owes that to the fans, and I hope everyone sees it that way.”
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Larkham later presented evidence from the Motec data logger in the Kostecki and Feeney cars from their qualifying laps.
It showed Kostecki’s top speeds to be higher than Feeney’s on Mountain Straight (257km/h versus 256.7km/h) and Conrod Straight (288km/h versus 286.9km/h).
Larkham noted that teams do not see data from other cars, indicating Kostecki would have been unaware of those specific numbers.
“They’re just the facts,” Larkham added of the top speeds.
“That doesn’t mean that’s going to happen in the race, I don’t know where they’re going to set their wings, how the rake of the car is, how they’re going to set their cars up.
“What I will tell you is Brodie must have had some wing on because he was fastest than Broc across the top of the Mountain and he was much faster in the middle of Turn 2, a really fast right-hander.”