The Shell V-Power Racing Team has confirmed that it will take an unchanged driver line-up into the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship.
It means that Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale will be driving Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustangs for a fourth season in a row after joining, or re-joining in the case of Davison, the team in 2021.
DJR CEO David Noble cited the importance of consistency in its drivers considering that the Gen3 ruleset has just been introduced to the category.
“Both are signed for next year, which is good,” he told Speedcafe.
“I mean, it’s consistency that you’re after – development of the new car – so it’s nice to have that [and] not have to get into that silly season.
“But, yeah, both are locked away for next year.”
Noble was announced as DJR’s new CEO in December 2022, and advised that his two drivers were already signed up for 2024 by then.
“That was done before I got here, but look, very happy that we’ve got our two guys at the moment onboard, so takes us out of the equation for anything in the market,” he added.
Davison is currently ninth in the drivers’ championship and De Pasquale 19th after a tough start to the Gen3 era for the Stapylton-based outfit.
The former has, however, finished in the top 10 in each of the last four races, and would have had a podium in the race immediately prior to those if not for a penalty for an unsafe release.
He was one of only four drivers to score multiple race wins in 2022 and ended the year fifth in the standings, one position behind De Pasquale, with DJR finishing second in the teams’ championship.
Noble’s confirmation follows Triple Eight Race Engineering’s announcement that Shane van Gisbergen has signed a new, multi-year deal, albeit with an option which allows him to leave in 2025 if he lands a drive in another category.
Until then, however, both of the teams which currently occupy the top two pairs of garages in pit lane will carry stable full-time driver line-ups into 2024 given Broc Feeney is also contracted for next season.
The 2023 Supercars Championship continues at Symmons Plains on May 19-21 with the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
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