{"id":208954,"date":"2025-10-13T00:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T00:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/208954\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T00:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T00:16:12","slug":"supercars-ceo-james-warburton-reacts-to-bathurst-1000-epic-dick-johnson-racing-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/208954\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars CEO James Warburton reacts to Bathurst 1000 epic, Dick Johnson Racing statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUPERCARS chief James Warburton has had his say after a bitter week that endedw ith an unforgettable Great Race.<\/p>\n

Much of the focus through the build-up to race day at Bathurst had centred around parity and whether or not changes would be applied following barometric pressure engine testing (i.e. examining the effect of altitude).<\/p>\n

Tensions escalated Friday after Ford was officially denied a recommended solution, leading to Brodie Kostecki going on the offensive even after grabbing provisional pole<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His team Dick Johnson<\/a> Racing went even harder with a stinging statement issued Saturday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that a number of people in the industry have privately criticised DJR\/Ford using a pre-Tailem Bend opportunity to modify aero as a chance to shift balance rearward instead of cutting drag to increase top speed.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, sure enough, in the dry-weather early phase of the Bathurst 1000 race, it was impossible not to observe how the passing down Conrod Straight seemed to be a lot of Camaros overtaking Mustangs and not much of the other way round.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Then came the rain, and a simply incredible contest unfolded.<\/p>\n

After countless twists and turns, it was the Grove Racing Mustang of Matt Payne and Garth Tander emerging victorious<\/a>, the narrative turning from parity tensions to widespread recognition of a memorable contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best qualifying session we\u2019ve ever seen, followed by an unbelievable Shootout and then it was a pretty good race right up until it started raining and that changed the complexion of it\u2026 it was just epic,\u201d Warburton told V8 Sleuth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing was epic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that it ran until quarter-to-seven live across Seven and Fox, I think the numbers will be off the charters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on the elephant in the room, the DJR statement, Warburton responded: \u201cI think the thing I\u2019d say is what we should have been celebrating post the Top 10 Shootout was Brodie being the best since (Peter) Brock in terms of the three-peat. And ultimately a Ford won the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work through process and procedure\u2026 at the end of the day, it is what it is and we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Brodie Kostecki<\/a> with engineer George Commins. Pic: Supplied\/Mark Horsburgh<\/p>\n

Long-term, Supercars now has the chance to mandate one-off altitude-related tweaks before the next visit to Bathurst. Short-term, the championship heads to Gold Coast where the Mustang is three-from-four in Gen3.<\/p>\n

So, is the parity war of words on the backburner?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s the war of words? We haven\u2019t said a thing. Supercars hasn\u2019t said a thing. We haven\u2019t said a single thing,\u201d stressed Warburton.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the end of the day, the results speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cDJR should be allowed to do whatever they want to do and they should be able to say whatever they want to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the world we live in and certainly from a media background, I\u2019m very happy for people to say whatever they want to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not get into that. Let\u2019s get into the fact it was the most unbelievable race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we want to celebrate \u2013 and we go to the Gold Coast with the cars the closest they\u2019ve ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 (October 24-26) will represent Supercars\u2019 first-ever knockout finals event.<\/p>\n

Ten drivers are currently in contention for the championship; only seven will still be in the hunt after Surfers Paradise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUPERCARS chief James Warburton has had his say after a bitter week that endedw ith an unforgettable Great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-208954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}