Sunday miss from pole story of DJR's year
Missing out from pole in Adelaide on Sunday was the story of Shell V-Power Racing Team’s year, says Team Principal Ben Croke.
Anton De Pasquale sailed to pole for Sunday’s VALO Adelaide 500 finale.
The two red Fords led the field for the opening laps, having locked out the front row.
De Pasquale came home third behind Broc Feeney and Chaz Mostert, his first podium since Sandown in August.
The Ford team had drivers in fourth and fifth overall, and was second in the teams’ standings.
De Pasquale tallied four poles and a win, with Will Davison taking nine poles and three wins.
All up, the Stapylton squad ended 2022 with four wins from 13 pole positions.
A 30 per cent pole to win conversion rate more reflected how good Shane van Gisbergen was in the races — a point raised by Croke.
Van Gisbergen scored seven poles, but won a record 21 races.
However, seeing another pole go begging was proof for Croke the team needs to eliminate mistakes to be a title contender.
“Not a terrible weekend, but not we wanted,” Croke said.
“We showed our pace again, especially on Sunday, but we didn’t convert.
"And that’s really the story of the year.
“On Saturday we had radio problems and were hurt by the timing of the Safety Car.
"Sunday we proved our pace with the front-row lock-out but there were too many mistakes.
“If you take one bloke out of the equation we had a pretty good year.”
It was a similar story for Ford rivals Tickford Racing, which had three wins to show from 11 poles.
Cam Waters managed to finish second overall, and had 10 poles and all three wins.
Waters became the first non-DJR driver to be lead driver in the points since Mark Winterbottom in 2016.
However, Waters last won in Darwin in June, having opened his account at Winton in May.
For team boss Tim Edwards, 2022 was a case of what ifs.
“It was the same story we’ve seen for most of the year – we had fast cars but we weren’t able to convert for a win,” Edwards said.
“It was good to see James Courtney get a podium on Saturday, but we made too many mistakes through both days and were also hurt by some things out of our control.
“We aimed to win the championship and we didn’t, so that’s not where we wanted to be. But we’re already looking forward to 2023.”
Both teams will campaign new seventh-generation Gen3 Mustangs in 2023.
The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will commence in Newcastle next March.
Tickets are on sale on Supercars.com and Ticketek.com.
