Tickford dejected after ‘rookie mistake’

Tickford Racing faces a big night repairing its new but badly damaged Mustang after Fords were eating Fords at Albert Park.

The two Mustangs were fighting fiercely for the first at the end of lap 2 where in the space of four corners a lead change, contact and crash occurred.

Whilst the crash occurred at the final corner, the saga started at turn 11 where Payne dived down the inside of Waters to snatch the lead.

At the penultimate bend Waters gave Payne a rub before the Monster Mustang aimed to set up a move around the outside of the final corner.

But Payne also tried to swing across to the usual racing line and with both Fords fighitng over the same piece of tarmac, they fired into the concrete hard.

With the #6 suffering suspected chassis damage and losing a wheel, Tickford faces a busy night on the tools to get ready for Sunday’s finale at 10.25 AEDT.

To add further insult to injury the clash robbed Ford of a golden opportunity to secure a maiden victory in 2024 and gifted Triple Eight a fifth win in as many starts.

Tickford CEO Rod Nash labelled Payne’s move as a “rookie mistake”.

“It is a hard pill to chew because it was just the second lap, Nash told AUTO ACTION.

“Not suggesting for one minute it was intentional but it is just a bit of what I feel is a really rookie mistake making a substantial position change on the track when knowing there are cars there.

“Unfortunately when making a substantial change from one side of the track to the other you always need to be weary of what you are doing.

“It is the line to come onto the straight you need to hook over to the left but I would have thought that awareness would have been there.

“That is your office and you know what is going on.

“I would have thought that erring on the side of caution in trying to spear across, asking ‘am I going to make contact here’ rather than worrying about trying to get your line right would be better.”

The reason why Nash said it hurts so much is because a vital win slipped away.

“That is the disappointing side of it, two Mustangs were having a crack,” he said.

“I sat out onto the grid and thought having three Mustangs in 1-2-3 is a good sight.

“It is getting better and the parity is tightening up the opportunity is there so this is a disappointing outcome.”

Reflecting on the clash from the driver’s seat, Waters said Payne’s movement across the track on corner entry caused the drama.

“He did a good move on me at 11 and then at 12 I had a look,” Waters told AUTO ACTION.

“Then at 13 he blocked but braked super early and I could not pull it up. Kind of caught me off guard.

“He gave me one into the corner which is fine and part of the fun, so I got under him and beside him going into the last corner and he came from one of the track to the other.

“We then had wheel to wheel contact which fired me hard into the left wall.”

Waters also said he hopes to have another meeting with Payne after their initial face to face encounter inside Payne’s wrecked car.

“He was kind of communicating but I was too busy yelling,” Waters said when he opened Payne’s door.

“I am sure we will talk about it again.”

Supercars Australian Grand Prix schedule

Thursday, March 21

Practice 1: 1: M. Jones 2: M. Payne 3: C. Waters

Practice 2: 1 B. Feeney 2: C. Waters 3: A. De Pasquale

Qualifying R3 Qualifying R4 Poles B. Feeney, C. Waters

Race 3: 1: B. Feeney 2: W. Brown 3: M. Payne

Friday, March 22

Race 4 (20 laps): 1: W. Brown 2: M. Winterbottom 3: M. Payne

Saturday, March 23

Qualifying R5: 1: M. Payne 2: C. Waters 3: C. Mostert

Qualifying R6: 1: C. Mostert 2: M. Payne 3: C. Waters

Race 5 (14 laps): 17.35-18.10

Sunday, March 24

Race 6 (14 laps): 10.20-10.55

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