Story reflects on tough weekend for DJR
Supercars
26 Feb
DJR 10th in teams' points after Round 1
Will Davison 15th, Anton De Pasquale 19th in drivers' points
Ford team was 10th after Round 1 in 2023
Dr Ryan Story says the Shell V-Power Racing Team is "not where we want, and need, to be" after a tough opening round of 2024.
Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale left Mount Panorama 15th and 19th in the points, with the team 10th in the teams' championship standings.
For the second year running, the Ford squad has started a new season on the back foot, with Davison and De Pasquale 16th and 17th, and the team 10th with 234 points, after Round 1 last year.
Come 2024, and Dick Johnson Racing left Round 1 with 237 points, and in 10th.
The weekend began with De Pasquale aquaplaning into The Chase sand when rain arrived in Friday practice, but the team managed to extract one-lap pace, with De Pasquale reaching both Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootouts.
However, Story said race pace will come under the microscope ahead of the next round; on Saturday, De Pasquale dropped from ninth to 21st, while Davison managed to move from 21st to 16th.
On Sunday, Davison raced from eighth to 10th, while De Pasquale dropped from 10th to 15th.
"Not much to say this weekend," said Story, who has returned to the Team Principal role.
"There is obviously plenty of room for improvement because we’re not where we want, and need, to be.
"We seem to have reasonable one-lap pace but there is still a lot to learn about how we manage a race over the stints.
"We did a huge amount of work in the off-season and it’s good to be racing, but there is still a huge amount of work still to be done."
The team's next assignment is the Melbourne SuperSprint, where De Pasquale rebounded immediately in 2023 with a pole position.
The Albert Park venue will host the second round of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship on March 21-24.
