DJR drivers reflect on tough weekend, Scott McLaughlin speaks up in defence of former team

The Dick Johnson Racing pairing of Will Davison and Anton de Pasquale have opened up on waht was a tricky round for the Queensland team as both drivers failed to score a podium finish across the three races.

Both drivers scored a fifth place finish in the meeting, de Pasquale on Saturday and Davison in the final race on Sunday, but inconsistency across all three 36 lap races harmed them. Davison could only manage 22nd in the opening race, improving to tenth in the next one while de Pasquale suffered an engine failure in race two followed by a struggle to 12th in the last race.

For a team which has won either the driver’s or team’s championship since 2017 the results seem lacklustre but Davison was positive in his overall outlook on the direction of the team.

“Although the results don’t show it, it’s still been a really important weekend for us. We’ve had a lot of stuff on the car we’ve been trying to understand, and we made a huge shift overnight,” Davison said.

“The first race today was actually going really well, but I think we were probably just a bit too late to put the slicks on. I think we might have been a little bit too conservative.

“But the car felt awesome during those few dry laps we had today. That was a definite step forward and gives us a lot of confidence in our direction for Tasmania. I was actually really hoping for a dry second race today because the car felt a lot better.

“In Race 5 we certainly improved some little things from the wet race before, but I just made a mistake early on, and I’m very sorry for that. I was really kicking myself the whole race.

“There was a lot of standing water, I just got too aggressive on the throttle and the car got away from me really suddenly. But I put my head down and managed to pass a lot of cars and get back to P5.

“Although we didn’t have the results today, it’s coming.”

de Pasquale was despondent after his horror day in which he scored no points in race four, the new recruit still yet to put in a clean weekend since joining the team thanks to his accident in the opening race of the season.

“Today was disappointing,” he said.

“We just seemed to struggle all day with set and pace in the wet. I also had the drama in the first race with the engine and ended up with a DNF.

“But we’ll go home and have a look at it all and see if we can figure out what’s going on. I’m looking forward now to Tasmania and hopefully getting some good results there.”

However, the team had a surprise bit of public support from former driver and three-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin. The Kiwi left the team and the sport last year after wrapping up his third title but has been watching from home in the USA where he’s set to make his full-time Indycar debut with Team Penske.

McLaughlin threw his support behind the team on their Facebook page when he discovered fans belittling the iconic Queensland squad, referencing the side’s struggles at Sandown are nothing new.

“This was always a tough track for us and a strong one for T8 (Triple Eight), always, since I joined the team,” the comment read.

“I’m sad reading some comments the last few days, I love our fans but the attack on the team/drivers is uncalled for. This has been a tough start for us as a squad, Bathurst, for two new drivers, learning a new car there is impossible, u (sic) need time, but Anton got a provisional pole at BATHURST, jeez give them some credit.

“Now into Sandown, where we never have been amazing, but the team showed glimpses of speed even better than we have had before. We now go to Tasmania, where we have won in the past but have also struggled at a track where T8 is always strong.

“We have had a tough initiation for two new drivers in brand new cars. Give it time, support the drivers and the team. They will get there, you don’t win 3 teams championships because your (sic) idiots.

“But we all got a huge boost from positivity and support from all our fans, positivity will only speed up the process for you all to enjoy success sooner rather than later.

“Cheering hard from USA team, you got this!”