BY JOANNA GUELAS for AAP
BATHURST, NSW. — Australian motorsport great Mark Skaife has hit back at Brodie Kostecki over the latest Supercars’ parity dispute, saying games are being played by the Ford camp.
Despite setting a new qualifying record to take provisional pole at the Bathurst 1000, Kostecki blasted Supercars ahead of the top-10 shootout for a lack of action over an engine deficiency.
Ford are concerned over a straight line speed disadvantage after recent testing by Supercars on the barometric pressure on the different engines.
Aerodynamic changes were also made to the Mustang last month, with Kostecki and co-driver Todd Hazelwood leading a Ford podium at The Bend 500.
Kostecki then flaunted blistering speed on Friday to shave 0.241 seconds off his 2023 Gen3 qualifying record at Mount Panorama and take out provisional pole for Sunday’s Great Race.
He put down a lap time of two minutes and 4.030 seconds, finishing ahead of championship leader Broc Feeney in the Chevrolet Camaro.
Fellow Ford driver Ryan Wood was third, but Kostecki insisted the qualifying lap speed “doesn’t matter” in terms of race pace.
“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.”
But five-time Supercars champion Skaife rubbished Kostecki’s claims.
The Holden veteran pointed out the top six cars – equally divided between Ford and Chevrolet – in qualifying 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.”
Anton De Pasquale was next best for the Chevrolet camp in qualifying, finishing fourth ahead of Erebus rookie Cooper Murray.
Erebus boss Barry Ryan was similarly unmoved by Ford’s concerns and said “there’s no way we can test barometric pressure properly in Australia”.
“I haven’t seen any data, and they haven’t shown anyone any data,” Ryan told AAP.
“They (Ford) just want to complain about it. I think it’s something they’re just making up.
“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.”
