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‘GHOST IN THE SYSTEM’ COSTS MIEDECKE, AMBROSE BATHURST START
A SHATTERED George Miedecke has been forced to pull the pin on his 2022 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour campaign with Marcos Ambrose, two days out from the event.
A strong build-up had seen the car developed to a point where they believed it to be a ‘significant step forward’ from the previous Mustang GT Miedecke raced last year to a class A1 win with Paul Morris and Brodie Kostecki.
However, a random electronic issue that would continually cause the car to shut down at high speed was discovered at the team’s final test earlier this week and was unable to be solved in time for this weekend’s event at Mount Panorama.
The issue forced the team to withdraw the car on Safety grounds, not knowing if the issue would present again on the high-speed, often completely blind corners at Mount Panorama.
“We’re a bit shattered. The car would ‘chuck a code’ into the system every now and then which would put the car in limp mode,” Miedecke explained.
“It wasn’t an issue that you could just fix by stopping the car on track and re-starting things, it needed to be brought back to base.
“It’s a safety issue. It’s fine testing at Winton but if it happened coming out of McPhillamy Park, for example, at 200km/hr then there’s a good chance we get drilled by another car which is not safe for us and for other competitors around us.
“To have something like this throw itself at us so close to the event is frustrating because everything else had been sorted.”
The lengthy build-up for the Bathurst campaign saw extensive testing and development work on the newly-built Mustang, with all the initial bugs rectified.
That included getting the package, which included the 10-Speed 10R80 automatic gearbox for the first time, reliable and fast.
“The gearbox was a big tick, the engine? Tick. The safety? Tick. Handling? Tick. Everything was looking really good and it was definitely a step forward on the old car.
“It was going to be competitive and will be in the future.
“This is just one of those strange, unforeseen issues that crop up when you turn a road car into a race car, with all their modern technology. It’s a ghost in the system that we’ve not been able to find.
“The Ford Mustang was otherwise good to go, and this is an issue we’ll rectify and fix and get it back on track to go again.
“We’ll all be watching closely to see how the race plays out. It’s going to be a fantastic battle with lots of good cars, and we wish we could’ve been safely part of it.”
Tickets for the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour are available on line or at the gate.
Watch the event unfold live on Stan Sports this Saturday and Sunday.