The Shell V-Power Racing Team is not giving up on the 2023 Supercars season despite another tough weekend.
Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale each managed a single top 10 across the three races which made up the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, a far cry even from the standard which the team set last year.
Dick Johnson Racing left Symmons Plains in the same seventh position in the teams’ championship as that which it occupied on arrival, although it can point to the fact that it is now 85 points behind the top Ford team, down from 126 at the start of the weekend.
That is a notable metric in the context of the ongoing Gen3 parity debate, although much of DJR’s relative improvement can be explained by dramas for its peers in the Blue Oval camp.
Still, De Pasquale finished the Tasmania event on something of a high, driving from 17th on the grid to ninth at the chequered flag, while Davison climbed from 24th after a run-in with Cameron Waters in qualifying to 13th.
Asked if it is too early to lose hope, DJR CEO David Noble told Speedcafe, “Entirely; yeah, absolutely.
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“I mean, we’ve got work to do – there’s no doubt about that – so we’ll go back, we’ve got a test day coming up, which is really good.
“The timing’s good for us to get back in and try a few more settings, look at a few more set-ups, which we’ve been waiting for.
“That’s at the start of June, so, plenty of work still to do.”
Noble saw plenty of positives at Symmons Plains, too.
“I was just really proud of the way that our guys fought the weekend out,” he declared.
“Anton’s race, Will’s race, to be able to finish in the top 10 again… crew were great, on song pit stops – really good, really consistent – so look, there’s still a fair bit to take away from the weekend.”
Davison started and finished the weekend ninth in the drivers’ championship, while De Pasquale left the Apple Isle in 18th, a gain of just one position over the course of Races 10 to 12.
On the latter, Noble said, “I though he drove really well [on Sunday], the way that he attacked the race on the softs [and] got a bit of speed.
“In that first and second sector, he was really strong consistently, and the consistency of getting that is what we’re chasing.
“Look, he’s in a good headspace. He’s frustrated, but he’s certainly doing the work behind the scenes.”
DJR is set to test at Queensland Raceway on June 1, ahead of the Betr Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley on June 16-18.
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