Anton De Pasquale’s pressure from within – Images: Supplied
Dick Johnson Racing young gun Anton De Pasquale is not feeling the weight of expectation of joining the championship-winning squad, but expects the most pressure to come from himself when the season starts at Bathurst.
By HEATH McALPINE AND MICK REYNOLDS
His long-mooted move to the newly rebranded DJR was confirmed late last year where he will partner hungry veteran Will Davison in a fresh driver line-up.
De Pasquale made his DJR debut at a 60km shakedown earlier this week, before completing a full test day at Queensland Raceway where he logged 95 laps and finished second fastest to Matt Stone Racing’s Zane Goddard at the end of proceedings.
Joining the team, which has previously won the last three titles isn’t daunting for De Pasquale as he aims to continue DJR’s successful era. Although high expectations have been placed on the Victorian ahead of this season after moving from Erebus Motorsport, De Pasquale believes it will be himself, who will scrutinise his performances the most.
“I’ve always said I put a lot of pressure on myself than I think anyone else can so whenever any pressure is there I put it on myself anyway,” De Pasquale told Auto Action.
“I always want to perform and go as well as I can, but there’s some sort of pressure, expectation because you’re filling one of the seats of the two fastest guys in the series for the last handful of years.
“The team hasn’t put any pressure on us, ‘you have to do this, you have to do that’, but like I said I put a lot of pressure on myself and I go into every racetrack whether it’s here or when I was overseas or when I started karting or now.”
De Pasquale’s move to DJR caps a rapid rise for the Supercars race winner, who returned from Europe in 2016 and debuted in the top-tier in two-years later after serving his apprenticeship in Super2. Last season he took a win at Hidden Valley and is eager to have more success at his new team.
“Your competitive nature is racing, you want to beat everyone all the time so that’s the aim for every race,” said De Pasquale.
“Now I’m in a position where I’m in a team, which has done that in the past you aim to go to every race and win, but you can’t win everything, though you aim high and see what happens.
“Be consistent throughout the year and try to get a good championship result is obviously always the key.”
DJR were joined by fellow Queensland-based teams Triple Eight Race Engineering and Matt Stone Racing at Ipswich, while Team Sydney were also in attendance.
MSR’s Goddard led the way ahead of De Pasquale and Jake Kostecki.
Triple Eight pair Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen focused on long runs. Davison and Garry Jacobson ran 90-laps each, while new Team Sydney signing Fabian Coulthard rounded out the full-time competitors.
Triple Eight endurance drivers Garth Tander and Craig Lowndes also logged laps, so too Team Sydney team owner Jonathon Webb.
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