How 'awkward' meeting helped Ford drivers clear the air

James Courtney has revealed that Mustang drivers were called into a meeting by Ford management after a spate of high-profile incidents at the Grand Prix.

The Blue Oval has powered back into contention in 2024, with Chaz Mostert, Cam Waters and Matt Payne all winning races in the last two rounds.

However, all three could have won sooner if not for dramatic clashes while fighting for victory, all incidents coming in Melbourne in March.

Three of the four Grand Prix races were headlined by collisions between Ford drivers, with Payne involved in all three incidents.

Payne and Anton De Pasquale made side-to-side contact in the second race of the weekend; Payne survived, but broken steering ruling De Pasquale out of the race.

In the third race, Waters and Payne spectacularly crashed out disputing the lead, triggering a fiery trackside argument between the pair.

A day later, Mostert hit Payne out of the lead, with Mostert penalised and Payne later sent into a spin by Bryce Fullwood.

All told, the weekend was a bitter pill to swallow for Blue Oval fans, with Chevrolet drivers taking victory in each race after Mustangs wiped each other out of contention.

Payne and De Pasquale joined fellow Ford driver James Courtney on the latest Drivers Only podcast, with the 2010 champion revealing a meeting took place ahead of the Taupō round.

Coincidentally, that meeting has paved the way to six of the last eight wins for Ford drivers, with Mostert (three), Waters (two) and Payne all racing to victory lane.

"It was after [the Grand Prix] when we all got sat down as Ford drivers, when we got to Taupō,” Courtney said.

“The rest of us were like, 'Yeah we’ll play nice, we’re all friendly'."

Payne, meanwhile, quipped he has "cleared the air with a lot of people” since the Grand Prix, with the likes of Mostert, Waters and Payne all delivering wins since.

Another Ford driver has since told Supercars.com that, in the meeting, management called on drivers to "race hard with each other" but "race fair," understanding that they were racing for not only the brand, but for their own teams too.

It comes after, when asked in Taupō if there were discussions with other Ford teams about racing each other, Tickford Racing CEO Simon Brookhouse said: "No, not really. I think we're all in it to win.”

Notably, Mostert and Waters — who have collided a number of times in the past — put on a race for the ages in Townsville, with Waters taking victory.

Mostert then passed Payne and Waters for the lead en route to victory in Sydney, helping the Walkinshaw Andretti United star close to 105 points behind Camaro rival Will Brown.

Catch the full Drivers Only episode on Supercars.com or the official YouTube channel from 5:00pm AEST on Friday.

The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint on August 16-18. Tickets for the event are on sale now.

Live coverage can be found on Foxtel, with live streaming available on Kayo. Highlights will be shown on the Seven Network and 7plus. International viewers can follow all the action on Superview.