Gen3 Dick Johnson Racing Ford set for 2028 Super2
Cooper Barnes drove Gen3 Mustang at Queensland Raceway
First public commitment to Super2, which moves to Gen3
A race-winning Shell V-Power Racing Team Gen3 Ford Mustang has been committed to the 2028 Super2 Series.
The car has been purchased, and will be run by rising star Cooper Barnes when the Super2 category makes the switch to Gen3 machinery in 2028.
The car in question, DJRS-04, was raced to victory by Anton De Pasquale at the 2023 Townsville 500, and finished third in the 2023 Bathurst 1000.
Teenager Barnes, who is a frontrunner in the GR Cup, recently completed the maximum 10 laps as part of an open practice day at Queensland Raceway. There, the car — with Barnes’s number and name on the Ford — was formally handed over.
The sale of DJRS-04 was facilitated by Young Timers Garage.
“We are proud that one of our Ford Mustangs is the first car committed to race in the Super2 Series’ upcoming switch to Gen3 machinery,” Dr Ryan Story said.
“Cooper will have a proven car as he takes his next step up the ladder, and securing a Gen3 car well in advance of 2028 demonstrates how serious he is about his motor racing and his desire to one day reach Supercars.
“He has shown himself to be a talented young racer with a lot of promise and he acquitted himself well in his time aboard his new car.”
Barnes, who drove a Ford Mustang production car at the Bathurst 6 Hour earlier this year, said: “It was awesome. Everything happened 10 times faster than I’m used to.
“The car had so much more braking stability, the sequential gearchange was amazing – driving the real thing was so much better than the simulator.
“Driving the Supercar was completely different to the 86. The speeds that you are travelling at are just crazy; you would never get up to that in the 86. Then out of corners, it had just crazy power. It was extremely fun to drive."
The Barnes family is the first to publicly commit to running a Gen3 car in Super2 from 2028.
“We spent a bit of time looking at where we wanted to go,” Jamie Barnes, Cooper’s father, said.
“We looked at entering Super2 next year with its current Gen2 cars but decided that waiting for the category to switch to Gen3 was the right thing for us.
“The next step was to find a car, and we felt the best option was to buy a car from the Shell V-Power Racing Team.”
