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Andre Heimgartner swept both of the day’s extended test sessions in his new Camaro.
Brad Jones Racing pilot Andre Heimgartner has emerged as the quickest driver at the first ‘all in’ Supercars test day of the 2023 season, held at Sydney Motorsport Park.
At the helm of his new ‘Gen 3’ Chevrolet Camaro, Heimgartner set a 1:29.8268 in the four-hour afternoon session to edge the Coke Erebus Camaros of Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki.
Heimgartner effectively ‘swept’ the test day, having been the quickest during the weather-affected morning session, too.
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Shane van Gisbergen was quick in the day’s early wet running, ending the closing four-hour session in seventh.
Defending series champion Shane van Gisbergen was seventh quickest in his Red Bull Camaro, having topped the timesheets earlier in the day.
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The test proved to be a controversial one, with talk of the new Ford Mustang having a performance deficit to the Camaro spurred on by the day’s results.
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Team Cooldrive’s Todd Hazelwood was the quickest Ford Mustang driver, and the only one to finish in the top 10.
The day ended with Camaro runners locking out the top eight positions (Macauley Jones and Jack Smith were fourth and fifth, with Mark Winterbottom eighth).
The leading Ford runner was Todd Hazelwood in ninth position. You then had to go back to 13th, 14th, and 16th to find the next Mustang runners – Chaz Mostert, Anton Depasquale, and Cameron Waters, respectively.
Mustangs also finished the day 17th through to 20th, headed by another New Zealander – full-time debutant Matt Payne.
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Full-time debutant Matt Payne of Auckland outpaced his experienced team mate David Reynolds.
The result led to parity-related jibes from some Ford drivers, while also spawning accusations of ‘sand bagging’ from Camaro teams. Motorsport.com reports that several Ford teams have denied the claims.
Lead Tickford driver Waters posted on social media that he finished fourth “in class” and 15th “overall” – a jab at the Camaros being in a class of their own.
Erebus Motorsport boss Barry Ryan said he believed Ford teams weren’t pushing the envelope as much as they could have been, pointing to how some weren’t using fresh tyre sets.
“I was out there all day watching it because we were all wary of it,” Ryan told Motorsport.com. “And when they’re just on hard tyres, and you can tell an old soft tyre because the white is gone off the side, it’s ridiculous.
“There will be reports tonight that there’s only one Ford in the top 10 – and I don’t give a shit. I trust the VCAT system and that’s proven itself over the years. We haven’t had a parity issue since Ford did the same thing last time.”
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