Provisional polesitter Kostecki claims performance disadvantage

It's become a big topic over the past 48 hours as to what Ford's chances in the Repco Bathurst 1000 look like, and even their own top performers have differing opinions.

Friday qualifying at Bathurst proved to be one of the closest qualifying sessions ever held at Mount Panorama, as Brodie Kostecki pinched provisional pole by just 0.0064s from Broc Feeney.

It was an even split of Mustangs and Camaros inside both the top six and the top ten, with first through sixth covered by just 0.0973s, and first through tenth by 0.2175s.

However, despite the pace that the #38 Mustang showed throughout the day, Kostecki is still calling for changes to be made before race day to boost the chances of the Ford package.

The reigning Bathurst champion stated that, "It's disappointing that nothing has been done about it after a report has been published," before adding that it, "doesn't matter," that he had the fastest car on Friday.

Co-driver Hazelwood, however, insisted that victory was very much still on the cards for the #38 Mustang, who dominated the AirTouch 500 at The Bend, but acknowledged that there was still work to be done.

"We're certainly aware that we still have some work to do, and we're working hard behind the scenes to try and achieve that.

"It's pretty cool as a co-driver when you can sit back in your chair and have full confidence in a guy knowing that it's going to take a rainy day or something bad to essentially happen for Brodie not to be in the top 10.

"It's really cool from my point of view, and we've just got to keep hitting our straps and hitting our markers, and hopefully come Sunday it's kind to us and we can do what we did last year.

"Obviously the aim for us is to go back-to-back, and we'd love to do it again."

Ryan Wood, meanwhile, has been one of the fastest cars all weekend at Mount Panorama, topping the opening practice session yesterday.

The #2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Mustang of Wood and Jayden Ojeda has been widely touted as a dark horse combination for this weekend, however as the weekend goes on, they have shifted further towards being genuine contenders.

Wood played down the dark horse claims this afternoon: "It's obviously cool but we want to be in contention, and we feel like we are, and I don't feel like me and Juice think we're dark horses.

"So we'll go out there and try and prove a couple of people wrong, and try and beat the field.

"But it's pretty close out there, and it's cool to get my first Top Ten Shootout here at the 1000, so I'm pretty excited and looking forward to having that moment to myself, and Juice has been doing an awesome job.

"We've just been trying to focus on Sunday, it's probably a little bit of a different position to what I'm used to, because I feel like we usually go for more one lap car speed to get ourselves into track position.

"But the race being so long, you've got to try and make sure you follow the race, and make sure you have a great car for that whole day, so we're trying pretty hard."