“I HAVEN’T had a good season as a whole to now.”
That’s Anton De Pasquale’s blunt confession amid optimism of a resurgence at the Darwin Triple Crown.
De Pasquale is a lowly 18th in the championship after four rounds, nine places behind Dick Johnson Racing teammate Will Davison.
But buoyed by a mid-season test at Queensland Raceway, DJR looked on song during Friday practice at Hidden Valley with both cars consistently running towards the front – including De Pasquale setting the best time of the day in Practice 2.
“We’ve come from a test day where we thought we learnt some things and I guess today was a bit better than where we have been for the rest of the year so hopefully we can follow that into the rest of the weekend and the rest of the year,” he surmised.
Indeed, DJR appears to have broken away from its set-up comfort zone, and to good effect in the search for making grip.
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“There’s very limited stuff you can do in these cars but there’s some different directions you can go, it seems,” said De Pasquale.
“So we’ve elected to go a different one and it seems to be better.
“Whether that is today, tomorrow, the rest of the year, who knows, but it seemed better today which is promising.”
In the bigger picture of a season thus far dominated by Camaros, the #11 Shell V-Power Mustang driver added: “Obviously Ford as a whole hasn’t represented on the top step or much on the podium but we’re getting closer.
“There’s a lot of talk in the background and stuff about getting things a bit closer to give us a bit more chance in the race.
“I try to stay out of the politics and just try to drive the thing fast.”
Qualifying today begins at 11:30am local time (midday AEST), setting the grid for the first of three races – each of which tyre degradation is tipped to be a factor in.
