Reynolds refutes Ford sandbagging claims

The results of the all-in pre-season test favoured the Chevrolet teams heavily, with Camaros filling 11 of the top 12 spots in the final standings.

The trend was in keeping with concerns from Ford and its teams heading into the Gen3 era that the Camaro is a better package, particularly in terms of straightline speed.

Supercars is planning another aero homologation test next week while campaigning regarding the performance parameters of the new Ford V8 motor continues.

The Camaro whitewash prompted suggestions from some Chevrolet teams that, amid the politicking, the Ford teams had purposely not set representative times at the SMP test.

Grove Racing driver Reynolds, however, is adamant there were no instructions to hold back – and that the pace of the Camaro is genuinely worrying.

"It's concerning that the timesheet looked the way it did," he told Autosport after finishing 18th fastest.

"There were allegations of sandbagging, which wasn't nice. I wish we were smart enough to do all that, but I don't think we are.

David Reynolds, Grove Racing Ford

Photo by: Edge Photographics

"I know on our side of the fence we were just running through our programme, trying to make as much speed as we could.

"We weren't trying to hide any speed, we went flat out from Lap 1. We were the first cars to roll out on slick tyres and we were on top of the times until everyone started going faster.

"We were going genuinely as fast as we could.

"It all goes back to when I first drove the [prototype Mustang] last April at Symmons Plains. The Camaro was 0.4s, 0.5s faster than me and down the back straight it was hard into the limiter. I couldn't get anywhere near it.

"After the first [teams] test day at Winton [this year] I was talking to some other drivers about their times and tyres and I estimated we were about eight-tenths off the Camaro.

"And then we got some more power for the Sydney test, and they took a bit of gear cut out of the Camaro, and I think the gap was around six or seventh tenths.

"There's no specified minimum weight yet, so cars could be running super light. There could be Centre of Gravity differences, there could be aero differences, there could be engine differences, I don't really know. I'm not involved in those conversations.

"But we've known about [the pace deficit] for a long time."

Reynolds added that he backed Supercars to rectify the issue, as it did back in 2019 when the Gen2 Ford Mustang was found to have an aero advantage.

"Supercars does come up with solutions to these problems, we've seen that in the past," he said.

"They have a good track record with parity. I just hope it doesn't take too long."