The Shell-backed squad enjoyed a much-needed positive showing in New Zealand off the back of a tough start to the season that saw it plummet to third-last in the teams’ standings.

Will Davison was quick out of the truck in Taupo setting the third fastest time on Friday, before the veteran led home a two-three ahead of Anton De Pasquale in Saturday’s opening race.

The Sunday belonged to De Pasquale, who took provisional pole and finished third in the second race to seal the prestigious Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.

While all welcome results, team principal Ryan Story is under no illusions that the team is out of the woods just yet.

“It was certainly a step up,” Story told Speedcafe. “We’re really honoured and humbled to be able to take home the Jason Richards [Memorial] Trophy, that’s obviously one that means a lot to this pit lane and to the Supercars community.

“And it’s a tribute to all of the efforts from everyone at the team to continue to find the form that we’ve been lacking recently.

“So it’s definitely some progress and some encouraging signs. How much that translates to Perth and beyond, we don’t know. There is still plenty of work to do.

“Believe me, we’re happier with the weekend, but we’re not happy.”

That echoed the sentiment of DJR CEO David Noble, who said in the post-Sunday race press conference that there was still work to be done.

“We’ve been working really hard,” he said. “We’ve been around the mark through quali, and not able to really deliver performance come race time.

“I think for our team that’s worked really hard internally, and there’s a crew back in Queensland, it’s a shout out to those guys who worked really hard. To get some reward and get some nourishment for the effort, I think, is really good.

“For us, it’s only the start of where we want to get back to. We said at the start of the year we wanted to hunt. You know, that was our theme.

“We wanted to hunt down the opposition this year, and we’ve got more work ahead of us.”