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The Shell V-Power Racing Team is encouraged by the set-up window which it found in its Gen3 Ford Mustang package at a victorious NTI Townsville 500 weekend.
After a less than stellar start to the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship, which dates back to a technically troubled pre-season, Dick Johnson Racing broke through for its first win of the year in – fittingly – Race 17 of the season.
For the Ford camp broadly, it was also the first time this year that a Mustang was the first car to the chequered flag, after Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters was classified the victor of Race 1 in Newcastle when both Triple Eight Race Engineering entries were disqualified.
The Townsville triumph also coincided with a new aerodynamic package for the Mustang, designed to prevent a substantial loss of rear downforce when the vehicle pitches under brakes.
With just an hour of practice in total, on a Reid Park Street Circuit not regarded as particularly aero-sensitive, the jury is out as to the merit of the changes, but there are promising signs for DJR.
“I think we’ve learned a bit through the couple of practices, and then the couple of qualis,” said CEO David Noble when asked by Speedcafe about their understanding of the package.
“Obviously, [in Race 17] we were able to find a window that seems to work pretty well, but who knows whether or not we can maintain that going forward to the next race?
“From our side, that’s where we’re at. We learned as we went through the weekend, and credit to our guys for getting the car in a position that it could win.”
There was, though, an element of fortune and strategy in De Pasquale’s result.
As was the case for Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert on the day prior, he used a three-stop strategy to finish as the top Ford driver, having enjoyed a relative wealth of green tyres after electrical gremlins in Race 16 meant the #11 Ford Mustang spent much of that encounter in the garage.
Ford figures remain concerned about rear tyre life with DJR, as its homologation team, undertaking work in the days following the NTI Townsville 500 which may lead to a change of throttle body specification in the Mustang’s engine.
Speaking on the Townsville result, though, Noble was upbeat about the effort and improvements within DJR, regardless of whatever the situation may be with respect to parity.
“You make your own luck in that sense,” he said of the circumstances of De Pasquale’s win.
“Safety Car [timing], I understand that, [but] we took some learnings out of [Race 16], we found some pace in the car, so that’s not luck.
“Anton’s stints through the through the whole sequence of when we changed our tyres was pretty solid.
“Yeah, look, there is more work to do but, today [in Townsville], it’s about celebrating the win, to be honest.
“It’s about recognising what we’ve done over the last couple of weeks has got us to a point, not just with the parity side of things, but just our internal work.
“We’ve just continued to work our backsides off all across internally to get to this point, and recognition should go to our whole team in what we’ve done.
“Forget about the other bigger picture, but internally, we’ve just got our own stuff right as well.”
Will Davison is ninth in the championship and De Pasquale 16th on the way to the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight on July 28-30.
