SOMETHING of a clean slate presented by a mid-season test has been credited with driving Dick Johnson Racing’s drought-breaking podium in Darwin.
DJR had appeared to immediately bounce back from its Newcastle horror show when Anton De Pasquale claimed pole position for the opening race of Round 2 at Albert Park.
But another 10 races came and went before the Ford squad finally got its hands on some silverware, thanks to Will Davison in the Saturday leg of last weekend’s Darwin Triple Crown.
Davison has hovered inside the top 10 for much of this season but believes a June 1 test at Queensland Raceway facilitated a major step forward.
“We came (to Hidden Valley) fresh off a test day with lots of new ideas, some very different set-up philosophies that we committed to running,” said the #17 Shell V-Power Mustang driver.
“Certainly I would say some good inroads, some good progression with the car which enabled us to get our first podium for the year which was certainly a positive.”
Davison, who was openly pleased to silence critics, is confident the tide will continue to turn; that’s a sentiment shared by team principal Ben Croke.
“To see Will back on the podium on the Saturday race was fantastic for the team,” said Croke.
“There’s been so much hard work go on behind the scenes, hours and hours of toil with these new Gen3 Mustangs so great reward for effort for the team to see Will up on the podium.
“For poor long-suffering Ford and Shell V-Power fans, it’s been a bit of a dry start to the year.
“We’ve shown this weekend with a podium and we’re moving forward up the grid.
“Thanks for sticking with us, Shell V-Power fans really are the best. Thanks for voting for our livery for being the best as well, it really does look great and you guys really mean the world to us.”
Davison holds ninth in the championship, while De Pasquale is just 17th.
Next up is the NTI Townsville 500, before which there is set to be a parity tweak to aid the five Ford teams.
