DJR announces key team restructure
Dick Johnson Racing has announced a team restructure ahead of the 2021 season, which features a tweaked race engineering line-up.
Ludo Lacroix, who engineered Scott McLaughlin in 2017, will work directly with recruit Anton De Pasquale, who moved from Erebus Motorsport in the off-season.
Richard Harris, who was McLaughlin’s race engineer in 2020, will work with Will Davison.
Davison is returning to DJR, which he drove for on a full-time basis between 2006 and 2008.
Ryan Story will remain with the team as Chairman and CEO, with Ben Croke promoted to Team Principal.
Perry Kapper (Chief Engineer), Ron Young (Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary) and Josh Silcock (Team Manager) complete the restructure.
Story, who will step back from day-to-day race meeting duties, said the changes will help strengthen and stabilise the team.
"We have a very ambitious growth strategy which encapsulates not only Supercars but our organisation as a whole," Story said.
"We've given great consideration as to how we go racing, how we can operate better on the ground, and how we can ensure the people with the appropriate skill sets and experience are in the right roles.
"At a later stage, we look forward to announcing our advisory board that will aid and assist the senior management of the race team. It will comprise a group of people who possess enormous levels of experience both in motorsport and in business.
"Dick and I are very proud owners of his eponymous racing team, and in taking on the chairman and CEO roles, it's not dissimilar to what I've been doing in years past since 2013.
"But it does change some of the responsibilities for the day-to-day operations of the race team itself."
The standalone DJR brand will return to the grid in 2021 following the departure of Team Penske, which linked up with the team in 2014.
Story said the Ford squad, which has won three of the last four teams’ championships, boasts a "very solid" line-up as it enters the post-McLaughlin era.
"In Ben Croke, we have a guy who's been involved in motor racing not just here in Australia in Supercars, but in Europe as well," Story said.
"He's got an immense amount of experience, and he's been with us for a long time. I think that now is the right time for him to step up.
"Perry Kapper and Josh Silcock are two people who are very well known to us and who have done a tremendous job for our team over many seasons.
"Ron Young has been associated with the team a lot longer than he's been a direct employee. He worked for Crimsafe for many years with Steve Brabeck, and he's a real figure of strength in terms of his administrative management of the organisation.
"The roles of Ludo Lacroix (Competition Director) and Nick Hughes (Technical Director) remain unchanged.
"Mark Fenning also remains as a key member of the trackside engineering group moving to a senior role across both cars, while also focusing on the design and development of the Gen3 Mustang alongside Perry Kapper.
"We have a very solid team which will continue to build the Dick Johnson Racing legacy."
The 2021 Repco Supercars Championship will commence at the Mt Panorama 500 across February 26-28.
