De Pasquale delighted after solid DJR shakedown
Dick Johnson Racing recruit Anton De Pasquale was delighted after a successful shakedown of his new car.
De Pasquale and Will Davison took to Queensland Raceway on Wednesday to complete running in their new Mustangs.
The two drivers each completed 60km, which is the maximum allocation for a shakedown.
The champion Ford squad revealed its 2021 livery on Tuesday, with Shell V-Power returning to back the team.
De Pasquale arrives at DJR following three seasons with Erebus Motorsport, having claimed a maiden race win with the Holden squad last season at Hidden Valley.
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"It's awesome, pretty cool rolling out a new car at QR with the Shell V-Power Racing Team; my first day officially as a driver here," the 25-year-old said.
"The car ran faultlessly. We got through everything we needed to do and we're ready to go for Friday.
"Today was basically making sure the car rolls out perfectly.
"We need to make sure we're comfortable, make sure when we get to Friday, we're into testing and not mucking around."
After three seasons running a Commodore ZB, the Mustang provides a fresh challenge for De Pasquale.
However, after a solid shakedown, De Pasquale was pleased he and Davison provided similar feedback.
"There’s a couple of little things, but you get that team-to-team, car-to-car," said De Pasquale, who will be engineered by Ludo Lacroix this season.
"There's always little things. It's cool understanding that, learning it, being a big sponge, and trying to work out how to make this thing fast.
"Basically, so far, we're saying similar comments about the car, which is what you want with your teammate.
"Hopefully we can bounce off each other all year and work together and make the car as good as we can, and fight for some good results together.
So far, so good."
Triple Eight Race Engineering and Matt Stone Racing also hit the track on Wednesday.
The Queensland-based teams, along with Team Sydney, will return to Queensland Raceway on Friday for pre-season testing.
Victorian teams will tackle Winton Motor Raceway on Tuesday.
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