DJR Not Happy Just Being the first Fords

Dick Johnson Racing had the first two Fords home in Sunday’s race at the 2024 Darwin Triple Challenge, but no one in the team is taking solace from that as the team fights its way back to the front of the field.

Three rounds after heading to New Zealand in the second-last garage, the team sits third in the Teams’ Championship and will start from the other end of the pitlane in Townsville.

The team’s CEO, David Noble, said that is the reason behind some recent changes in the team, including the departure of former team manager Ben Croke and some reshuffling, but that it really wasn’t there to just be the first Fords.

“Third in the championship, I reckon that’s a pretty good weekend for us, we were consistent. Sometimes you’ve just got to gather points and keep moving,” he said.

“It is about podium and wins. There’s no doubt we want to win, but for us, it’s also about delivering consistent performance regularly until we are back to where we want to be.

“Triple Eight sets a high bar and well done to those guys. But I think we came here with a good understanding of the car, and we learned some more good points. You put them in the bank, and you move forward.

“We’ll review where we need to get a bit more understanding and then look forward to Townsville.”

He was mystified by Ford’s lack of performance at Darwin after the cars showed promise in the previous rounds, but he said they can’t focus on things like that. They need to get what they’ve got right on any given weekend.

“It’s disappointing from a Ford perspective not to be as dominant as we were and then not be able to replicate that here. But the Ford family will go to work and deliver a better performance in Townsville.”

The team picked up a swag of points, and both Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale have entrenched themselves in the top 10 of the Championship and are not far off fourth. Davison has been pretty good since the New Zealand round, but he says he is far from satisfied.

“I think we’re a year and a half in, and it makes me feel sick talking about being happy being the first Ford,” Davison said after the race. “It’s hard to comment, but I know what I see and feel.

“At certain tracks this year, it’s been really good. There are some different characteristics still, and that’s why they’re still measuring things, and changes are being implemented.

“I feel like we maximised what we had in qualifying, and we did a pretty good job today, but we’re a long way off the pace of those leaders. The team did an amazing job on both cars.

“And you know, we’re working well together. We’re consistent and executing well, and the pit stops are great. I think as a team, we’re doing a great job, but the ultimate pace isn’t there at the moment.”

That said, he felt going out for a third run in qualifying was a mistake and robbed him of a green set of tyres for the Shootout when he didn’t need to do the extra run, and even aborting the run early took the edge of the tyres. He had qualified fourth but finished the Shootout in seventh.

“I should have just sat and saved the green set because I did the hard work on two sets. But we were nervous when everyone was going out with two minutes to go. We had a green set and I was like, ‘let’s just sit’. They said ‘no’ and sent me out, and we monitored everyone in the sectors. And by the time I got around, they said come in, but I’d already taken the edge off the tyres.”

He said the car performed pretty much as expected in the race, and he and teammate Anton De Pasquale came in seventh and eighth, behind six Chevs.

“We’ve already looked at the race report and that balance is OK, it’s just hard to race.

“I’m happy because I feel like we executed well today, but that’s all we could do. Ultimately, we strive to achieve more than that. Yesterday was a bit of a salvage job for me, after a difficult Friday, but we raced well, the pit stops were good and we came through today and raced pretty well and could have very easily ended up in the top five.

“I thought it was comfortably on because we ran long and was coming back through to that group of cars that were in lots of trouble. But when I got through to Le Brocq and Percat, just three or four laps trying to get through and then I got stuck.

“I was sure I had enough pace to comfortably get through to Golding, who only did two tyres, but he got saved as Percat pitted very early, and then we got stuck in the train. I underestimated the heat coming from the cars and how much it melts your tyres.”

Davison sits seventh in the Championship with 813 points and De Pasquale is eighth with 796, but Nick Percat in fourth is only on 855.

The team is now third in the Teams’ Championship but trails Walkinshaw Andretti United by only 39 points.