Dick Johnson Racing to adopt new number

DJR boss Ryan Story confirmed during Speedcafe’s Summer Grill series that the team will park the #11 plate raced by Anton De Pasquale over the last four seasons for a yet-to-be-announced number.

Will Davison is set to remain with the team’s flagship #17 while several options have been mooted for Kostecki, who campaigned #1 in 2024 at Erebus Motorsport.

“We will definitely be running a different number to #11 and we will announce that at the beginning of the year,” Story told Speedcafe.

Story explained that #11, which was made famous in Australian touring car racing by Larry Perkins, had been chosen by De Pasquale when he joined the team ahead of the 2021 season.

“I rang Anton in 2020 and said, ‘mate, give me a number that’s special to you, these are some numbers that work with us’,” Story detailed.

“At the time I think I said #71, #38, #16, just some numbers that would fit in and around the mix.

“He said, ‘I won a lot of races in Europe with #11’. I said, ‘that’s Larry’s number, if Larry gives us blessing to run it, we’ll make it happen’.

“So that number is more associated with Anton than the team. For us, it’s just about a bit of an opportunity for a refresh, I guess.”

The three numbers mentioned by Story all have significance to DJR and its founder Johnson.

Johnson began using #17 in the late 1960s as the result of reversing the #71 run by his then teammate, Graham Littlemore.

The #16 is an obvious option and was last used by the team in 2014 for Scott Pye, while #38 is tipped as the most likely to be selected given it also has meaning to Kostecki.

Kostecki used #38 during his shortened 2020 Super2 Series campaign with Eggleston Motorsport that helped propel him into a Supercars Championship seat the following year.

Johnson ran #38 during a handful of appearances in the NASCAR Cup Series across 1989 and ’90 – a campaign that long pre-dated the current trend of Supercars stars including Kostecki tackling the US.

De Pasquale’s adoption of #11 had succeeded #12 in DJR’s line-up – a number associated with Team Penske and fielded for Fabian Coulthard from 2016-2020.

DJR lost its traditional #18 following the 2012 season as part of its split with Charlie Schwerkolt, who used it to form the Team 18 squad that De Pasquale joins this year.