New wet Supercars tyre passes Taupo test

Dunlop introduced a softer wet for the start of the Gen3 era but it was scarcely needed that season, with the wettest session being a practice hit-out at Adelaide in which Triple Eight Race Engineering and Shane van Gisbergen still saw fit to try slicks.

There was no scope for such bravery in Saturday’s Race 7 of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship at Taupo, on the other hand, yet there were only two Safety Car periods in a contest which ran its full, 60-lap distance, despite a river forming across the track in the closing stages.

De Pasquale praised the tyre after finishing third in the rain.

“I think it’s cool because, going back a couple years, we probably might have not been able to race that well in these conditions,” said the Shell V-Power Racing Team driver, post-race.

“So, the tyre is clearly an improvement because we could actually do the race, we didn’t have to start under Safety Car… all these things, which is why we brought the tyre in.

“I guess that’s a box ticked.

“I’m not sure what happened at the start – obviously there was a bit of a crash with Cam [Waters] and Tim [Slade], I guess – but I don’t know what exactly happened there.

“It was on the start line so I don’t know if we can blame the weather for that; I’d have to have a look.”

Waters disagreed about proceeding with a standing start after being taken out as he tried to get away from pole position, although his reason was the disadvantage which the lines on the road create for the front row qualifiers.

Race 7 was a double podium result for Dick Johnson Racing with Will Davison placing second, before De Pasquale was able to score another third place in a dry Race 8 on the Sunday.

With that, he was able to secure the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, awarded to the weekend’s highest point-scorer, with his 258 putting him six clear of Race 7 winner Andre Heimgartner.

“Pretty cool,” said De Pasquale, “to go from a DNS to winning the next round, which is good.

“[It is a] Heap of points, obviously.

“We’ve been struggling at the start the year to execute races. We’ve qualified in the top 10, I think, every race but we haven’t had many finishes there, so to get a couple of podiums is really cool.

“It’s a completely different style track, so I think this suits us a little bit more than where we’ve come from.

“But, to win the round, to win the JR trophy, it’s special.

“I know how much it means to everyone and it means a lot to us, too.

“We’re very honoured to be able to win it after an awesome weekend and the first race [event] here, which I think was a big success.”

De Pasquale is 12th in the drivers’ championship while DJR has jumped from ninth to fourth in the teams’ standings.