Austin Cindric in the NASCAR Cup Series. Image: Team Penske
Tickford Racing last week announced it has struck a deal with Ford, Team Penske driver Cindric and the Adelaide promoter to field an extra entry in the famed street circuit event.
News of the ambitious mission began to emerge early last month while the formalities were still be pieced together.
“There’s not too many secrets down there,” said Cindric on the Door Bumper Clear podcast.
“I woke up about a month ago to a text from SVG, completely unsolicited; ‘hey, if you want to be any good down there, you’ve got to right-foot brake’.
“It was pretty funny. I was like ‘OK, I guess there’s no secrets and second of all, thanks for the advice’.”
Van Gisbergen subsequently noted publicly that Cindric was “already pracitising” right-foot braking for the wildcard during a NASCAR ECU test at Kershaw in late August.
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Cindric, 27, is an experienced road racer and is not a total Supercars novice, having tested DJR Team Penske and Matt Stone Racing Falcons in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
He’s also known to have driven a Gen2 Ford Mustang Supercar that Team Penske uses for its NASCAR stars to undertake road course training.
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Cindric admits a need to right-foot brake in the Gen3 Mustang will take some adjustment but is confident it won’t hold him back.
“The last time I’ve been in a race in right-foot brake is probably when I was 16 years old, so I have the skillset, it’s just not something I’ve needed to use or wanted to apply,” he said.
“But I feel like with this Gen3 car, from everyone I’ve talked to so far, it’s kind of a must with how clunky the transaxle seems to be on downshifts.
“It’s a decision I’m going to have to come to, but there’s that many guys that are left-foot brakers that have had to transition as well.
“It’s something I can confidently say I’ll be able to figure out and it’s not what’s limiting me from going out and running well and having a good time.
“But it should be a fun challenge.”
Cindric’s Tickford test program is expected to include running at multiple circuits between the Cup Series finale on November 2 and the November 27-30 Adelaide event.
Austin Cindric. Image: Supplied
“It should be a really cool adventure. I’m pretty much spending a month down there after the season’s over,” he said.
“It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time. I’ve done the Bathurst 12 Hour twice and done some testing down there, kind of a lifetime ago, almost 10 years ago.
“I’ve stayed in touch with a lot of those contacts but through my connections with Ford and getting together with Tickford.
“Obviously it’s a great team, great car, great teammates, and one of their coolest events of their year in Adelaide.
“It’s one of their hardest tracks on the schedule, next to Bathurst… it should be really cool, though.
“Adelaide is an old F1 circuit, there’s a ton of history there and Australian race fans are super passionate about V8 Supercar racing.”
Tickford will run Cindric’s wildcard alongside its two full-time Supercars Championship entries and four Super2 Series machines.
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