Dick Johnson Racing has revealed the livery for its Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustangs ahead of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.
The Stapylton-based squad will field an unchanged full-time driver line-up of Will Davison in Car #17 and Anton De Pasquale in Car #11 this year, with familiar naming rights backing.
While its Gen3 Mustangs will sport the new S650 shape, the livery also has strong carryover from its Gen2 race cars which ran as the S550 model of the Ford hero car.
There is, however, more yellow than in recent years, including on the mirrors and side skirts, while the red paintwork now covers essentially the entire bootlid, including between the tail lights.
Team Principal Ben Croke said regarding Gen3, “This has been the biggest change for the Supercar platform in over two decades.
“The change is exciting. It’s special to be a part of such a big shift in the sport, especially with something that looks so good and resembles the actual roadgoing version of the car.”
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DJR founder and co-owner Dick Johnson remarked, “I’ve been fortunate enough to do a couple of laps at Bathurst in the Gen3 Car and I’m pretty excited for the fact that a lot of the drivers are going to find it very different from the previous car.
“In this particular category, normally, cream usually rises to the top and one would hope that we’re the thickest cream.”
DJR will start the season with a new majority owner, namely the Ralph family, whose acquisition of a stake in the team became effective in January after being announced last August.
In further change in the upper echelons of the operation, former AFL coach and administrator David Noble has taken over the CEO role from Ryan Story, who remains Chairman.
DJR finished second in last year’s teams’ championship while De Pasquale pipped Davison to fourth in the drivers’ standings despite the latter outscoring the former in terms of race wins, three to one.
Davison said, “The car looks fantastic, it’s different – as soon as you see it, it looks tough, it looks fast, it looks slick.
“With our cars built here we’ve been able to really refine the build and now it’s time for us to get in and get comfortable.
“There’s a lot of new things ahead of us that we need to understand, but we’re all pumped to see it on the track and get the year underway.”
De Pasquale commented, “I’m super excited for this new generation of Supercars, it’s a different look for our team.
“The livery is a little bit different but still looks as iconic as we know the Shell V-Power colours are.
“Everyone in the workshop has been working super hard, so I’m looking forward to that first day the cars roll out and hopefully it brings us a lot of success along the way.”
Having been an integral part of the Gen3 development process as Ford’s homologation team, DJR is set to run its own race cars for the first time in a shakedown at Queensland Raceway tomorrow.
NOTE: This story has been updated since the livery was initially unveiled on the Nine Network’s Today show earlier this morning
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