Ford teams looking to hit back
Although Tickford and WAU continued to show speed, it was not a successful trip to Symmons Plains for the other Ford teams.
Not one of the combined six cars from Dick Johnson Racing, Grove Racing and Blanchard Racing Team registered a top 10 finish at the Tasmania SuperSprint.
It is the first time this season DJR and Grove Racing have failed to be in the 10 at least once across an entire round.
DJR did get close however, with Will Davison falling just four tenths short in 11th in Sunday’s Race 18.
Both Davison and Anton De Pasquale made decent gains in the race, but not enough to make a significant impact.
After being on pole and fighting for podiums at Sydney, DJR’s David Noble hopes a test day can put them on the right path for the enduros.
“We’ve had better weekends. We’re frustrated and disappointed,” Noble said.
“We were able to come back through on Sunday, but we but cannot rely on that.
“We’ve got to deliver better and have more consistent performances in both qualifying and races.
“We’ve got a test day in early September, so it will be nice to give the co-drivers a bit more track time and there is some homework we have ready to take forward to the enduros.”
For Grove Racing, Tasmania was a significant step backwards with Matt Payne finishing the previous four races inside the top four.
But like Darwin where its best result was 10th, the team could not unlock pace on the Supersoft tyre with a best result of 16th.
“This has been a poor weekend for us. We just didn’t execute well enough. We made too many mistakes,” Stephen Grove said.
“You’ve only got to be a little bit off the pace to suffer and qualifying let us down. When you’re towards the back of the grid it’s hard to go forward.
“Still, we’re super excited as we head into the enduro season. We think we’ve got the right team and the right package to do the job at Sandown and Bathurst.”
Image: Mark Horsburgh
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