Triple Eight Fords finished fourth, 23rd in Sunday's Bend enduro
Broc Feeney lost championship lead after Nick Percat was hit
Triple Eight winless in Supercars enduros since 2024 Sandown
Triple Eight Team Manager Mark Dutton believes his team could have challenged for victory at The Bend in a "clean" race, on what was a weekend dominated by off-track noise.
The Will Brown/Scott Pye Ford recovered to fourth in Sunday's AirTouch 500 at The Bend, having survived a series of incidents and 30 seconds of penalties.
The fancied Broc Feeney/Nick Percat car, meanwhile, was taken out of contention in the opening hour after a costly clash with Blanchard Racing Team co-driver Zak Best.
Feeney lost the championship lead, while Brown — who believes he could have fought for silverware — qualified for the Finals. Feeney labelled the outcome as "disappointing," while Jamie Whincup admitted there were "too many errors."
Dutton is also adamant Triple Eight could have been in the fight, saying: "On the track, if it had been a clean race, with the pace we had, we would have been challenging for the top spot.
"Everyone responded well to the challenges of minimising the effect of the carnage.
"We need to work harder to ensure we minimise the chances of getting into the sort of situations that hurt us at this time."
Triple Eight and Grove Racing, the two leading Ford teams, were involved in parity meetings and discussions in the lead-up to Sunday's race.
Dutton explained his team's stance, saying: "It was a very hectic weekend, both on and off the track with a fight going on over parity in Supercars.
"We’ll be pushing hard to get the category to ensure it is a level playing field with technical parity as we head to Bathurst.
"We’ll be doing some centre-of-gravity testing on the three models and also pushing to get the aero situation reviewed.
"We never look to get an advantage but we’ve got a lot of work to ensure the technical parity is respected."
