Anton de Pasquale takes first win with DJR, gives Ford victory 400

Dick Johnson Racing is back on top after the defending team’s champions took their first win of the 2021 Supercars season, courtesy of new recruit Anton de Pasquale with Will Davison making it a one-two finish.

After losing their three-time championship winning driver Scott McLaughlin at the conclusion last year, the Staplyton based squad found themselves winless going into Race 10 for the year, soon turning that around to secure the 400th Australian Touring Car Championship race victory for Ford.

The run to Turn 1 was an even affair between the two DJR cars, de Pasquale eventually muscling past Davison to take the top spot as the intensity behind them kept building with a four-car battle for third ending with major damage.

Saturday race winner Andre Heimgartner put his Kelly Grove Racing #7 up the inside of Tim Slade’s #3 Blanchard Racing Team car at Turn 5 but he forced the latter wide, creating a messy rejoin which resulted in heavy contact between Walkinshaw Andretti’s Chaz Mostert and the Tickford Racing entry of Cam Waters, nearly pulling the right rear of the Mustang clean off.

As a flow-on effect from the incident, Nick Percat also got caught up in the mess at Turn 6, the Brad Jones Racing car ending up turned around in the middle of the track after two cars tried to make a move up the inside.

While both Mostert and Waters ended up parked in their respective garages, de Pasquale held on to the lead despite a run off the road thanks to a lock-up at Turn 1, losing time to Davison but keeping a safe distance from his team-mate and Heimgartner in third.

Lap six saw the first round of pit stops cycle through, the Tickford car of James Courtney and Erebus Motorsports’ Brodie Kostecki coming in from fourth and fifth on the road respectively to take their compulsory stop as de Pasquale came in on the next tour, taking on two fresh Dunlop tyres on the left side of his Mustang.

Heimgartner was next to come in, suffering a slow entry to his pit box and then stalling twice upon the exit, coming out between the Team 18 cars of Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye, three spots down on where he should’ve rejoined the circuit.

Things didn’t get much better for KGR as David Reynolds started to feel the affects of the lap one contact with Percat, having suffered steering damage which meant his lap times were considerably slower than anyone else on track and forced the team to pull him into the garage.

Davison hit the lane on lap 11, having a slow stop on the front left which put him behind Courtney on the track and in front of Brodie Kostecki but with fresher tyres.

Race and championship leader Shane van Gisbergen ran long in his stint, going deep into the race while punching out fast times as de Pasquale started to feel the pressure from Davison and Courtney who had traded places on lap 14.

van Gisbergen finally took on two rear tyres on lap 17, coming onto the circuit in front of Courtney and only just behind the two DJR cars who were on older Dunlops.. Further back, wildcard driver Thomas Randle was picking off more experienced campaigners in his Tickford entry, getting by Winterbottom applying pressure to Saturday winner Heimgartner.

With only a handful of laps to go, van Gisbergen edged closer to the rear of Davison’s Mustang which only allowed de Pasquale to run away and take the win as his team-mate held on to second place ahead of van Gisbergen.

Courtney and Kostecki came home fourth and fifth ahead of Bryce Fullwood who flew the flag for WAU after Mostert’s retirement, beating reigning race winner Heimgartner, Randle, Winterbottom and Pye to complete the top ten.