Supercars legend Mark Skaife has accused Brodie Kostecki and Ford of playing games with their claims they’ve been disadvantaged by officials at the Bathurst 1000. And Erabus boss Barry Ryan reckons the complaint is completely “made up”.
Kostecki set a new qualifying record on Friday to take provisional pole for Sunday’s race, but then blasted Supercars for a lack of action over a supposed engine deficiency and lack of ‘parity’. The defending Bathurst champion and the Ford camp are concerned over what they believe is a straight-line speed disadvantage, citing recent testing done by Supercars on the barometric pressure on the different engines.
Aerodynamic changes were also made to the Mustang last month, after Kostecki and co-driver Todd Hazelwood led a Ford podium at The Bend 500. Kostecki showed off some blistering speed on Friday to shave 0.241 seconds off the qualifying record he set at Mount Panorama in 2023.
Mark Skaife (L) has rubbished Brodie Kostecki’s (R) claims after he broke the Bathurst qualifying record. Image: Getty/Supercars
He produced a lap time of two minutes and 4.030 seconds to finish ahead of championship leader Broc Feeney in the Chevrolet Camaro, with fellow Ford driver Ryan Wood third. But Kostecki claimed the qualifying lap speed “doesn’t matter” in terms of race pace, levelling a complaint about a supposed lack of parity.
“The best way to put it is we’re at our biggest race of the year and it’s like a footy grand final, points are tied,” Kostecki said. “There’s a free kick and you have to ask the other side to miss the free kick to win the grand final. It’s pretty disappointing for everyone that’s on the Ford side, and it’s going to make it incredibly difficult come Sunday.”
Pipped by 0.006 seconds, Triple Eight driver Feeney didn’t think too much of Kostecki’s gripe. “I mean, they went pretty well at The Bend,” Feeney said.
Brodie Kostecki in his Ford Mustang GT during qualifying for the Bathurst 1000. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Mark Skaife says Ford are ‘playing games’ with complaint
And Skaife – a five-time Supercars champion – completely rubbished Kostecki’s claims on Saturday. The legend veteran pointed out the top six cars in qualifying – equally divided between Ford and Chevrolet – were separated by less than a 10th of a second.
“To claim that there’s some parity issue, I’m bewildered by that. That blows me away,” Skaife told Fox Sports. “In fact, in the straight line sectors, Brodie was faster than Broc Feeney. There’s obviously just a lot of games being played in the background.”
Triple Eight star Will Brown, who co-hosts a podcast with former Erebus teammate Kostecki, was also baffled. “Unless they think they’re four 10ths better than the field, I think we’ve got parity,” Brown told Fox Sports.
“I don’t think Brodie was blowing about it last year when he was in a different car (with Erebus). He seemed pretty happy last year. He said they’re just a bunch of whingers.”
Barry Ryan says Ford claims are ‘made up’
As for Ryan, he suggested Kostecki and Ford have “made up” their claims and said: “There’s no way we can test barometric pressure properly in Australia”. He told AAP: “I haven’t seen any data, and they haven’t shown anyone any data.
“Straight line speed here is how good you come off turn one and how good you come off first elbow. It’s not just when you get your foot flat and the engine’s better.”
The Erabus boss said the parity dispute has the potential to threaten the future of the motorsport category. “They just want to complain about it. I think it’s something they’re just making up,” he said.
“Unfortunately, in the last few years, they’ve threatened the sport. They’ve said that they’re going to pull out of the sport and basically bullied the sport, and personally, I’m sick of it.
“Even if I was a Ford team, I’d probably be saying, ‘Hey, guys, you need to pipe down and look after the sport’. If I see the data and I see that they’ve got something wrong and there’s a disparity, yeah, fix it.”
Erebus CEO Barry Ryan watches on during the Bathurst 1000 in 2024. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
Kostecki will take a big step towards pulling off back-to-back Bathurst 1000 wins if he turns his provisional pole into the real deal in Saturday’s top-10 shootout. Should he triumph in the shootout, the Ford drover will join Peter Brock and Allan Moffat as just the third driver in history to snare three consecutive poles at the Great Race.
with AAP