Penrite, Tickford and DJR have won five of the last six races
Broc Feeney, Will Brown haven't stood on podium in last six races
Triple Eight seven rounds into Ford homologation team program
Broc Feeney maintains Triple Eight has had a “decent year” despite an ongoing form slump of sorts, as rival Ford squads continue to set the pace.
Grove Racing, Tickford Racing and Dick Johnson Racing have won five of the last six races since Feeney helped Triple Eight to its most recent victory.
While Grove, Tickford and DJR are in their fourth year with the Gen3 Mustang, new Ford homologation team Triple Eight are seven rounds in, following three years in Camaros.
As such, Feeney said Triple Eight’s Ford rivals have developed a bigger “toolbox” to work from, and have greater understanding of how to engineer their cars out of trouble.
"Penrite are doing a fantastic job at the moment. Tickford's obviously found a bit of form in the last couple of rounds,” Feeney told Supercars.com.
"I think we've had a really decent year considering some of our car pace at times. The guys around us are probably a little bit more on top of it at the moment than where we are.
“We're pretty fresh into this Mustang. Going back to the end of last year, we'd run that car for three years, and we knew exactly what we needed to make it go fast when it wasn’t in its window."
Feeney won three of the first six races of the season, but has one win in the last 16 as Grove, Tickford and DJR not only closed the gap, but went past Triple Eight. Triple Eight, however, has been out-scored only by Grove and Tickford across the last two rounds.
“He’s been complaining about the car being too unstable on the way to the corner, and then when you get to the corner it’s got too much understeer,” Skaife said on MotorRacing360.
“Now those two things, they do not go together. If you fix the stability and make it nicer to enter the corner, that will make the understeer worse. Especially when you look at the layout we’re dealing with in Perth, they’re big, long corners.
“When you’ve got understeer, if you’ve got a little bit of understeer, that’s okay, but if you’ve got that amount of understeer you’re in the corner for so long, that then transcends into lap time. That’s a real negative.”
DJR boss Dr Ryan Story, meanwhile, suggested the homologation team role is both a blessing and a curse, while 2010 Supercars champion James Courtney suggested neither Feeney or Will Brown have had to drive a "shit" Triple Eight car before. Feeney, though, insists Triple Eight is still on a learning curve.
“We're trying to expand our toolbox at the moment, and just learn what you need to go fast at different tracks,” Feeney said.
"But we've shown this year when we’re on, we're the ones to beat, but we're just not consistently there yet. Some guys have shown most weekends they are right in the mix, and we're just a little bit hit and miss at the moment.”
The return of a traditional Super 440 format — with practice held on Friday, before the first race on Saturday — could play into Triple Eight’s hands in Perth, given teams will have a night to digest data.
What matters to Feeney, is that Triple Eight is in the mix.
“Our debriefs are always pretty long. Townsville was a long one,” Feeney grinned.
“We'll see. The plan this weekend is just to be in the fight. The last couple of rounds, we've probably been close to the back of podium pace, but never right in the fight for it.
“It’s funny, what is it, first time in 20 years and it’s because we haven't had a podium in six races? But we've kind of been fourth to sixth. It’s not all bad.
“We expect so much from ourselves, and we hold ourselves to such a high level that anything but a win or a podium on a bad weekend's not ideal.
“There's so many good teams and drivers at the moment. It's super competitive."
Track action in Perth commences on Friday.
