Why rookie Gray is repaying DJR's unprecedented leap of faith

Whilst it might have ended on a sour note, the ITM Christchurch Super 440 was the clearest sign yet that the Shell V-Power Racing Team are on the right path with rookie Rylan Gray.

Whilst his weekend was capped off with a 25-point penalty for piling into the opening lap crash in the final race of the weekend, it masked an impressive Saturday that saw the rookie claim his first career top 10 finishes.

With teammate Brodie Kostecki going on a tear to kickstart his second season at the team, it brought Gray's quiet start to the year into focus ahead of the second leg of the New Zealand Double Header.

The youngest full-time driver in the history of Dick Johnson Racing, Gray was announced to be stepping into the shoes of veteran Will Davison in October last year, with a 'focus on consistent finishes and progressive improvement,' highlighted.

And improve the reigning Super2 champion has, picking up an average 3.3 places per race for the season to date, culminating in a breakthrough weekend on a level playing field at the inaugural event at Ruapuna.

“It was a pretty decent start to our weekend, we were just in the back end of the top 10, and we finished with two top 10’s as well,” said the teenager post-round.

“Today didn’t really go as planned, we missed it a little bit in qualy, but we had a pretty good opening lap until it wasn’t.

“Unfortunately our race was done on lap 1, but there’s a lot of positives to come out of this weekend, we had a big turnaround from Taupō, so onto Tassie.”

The dual breakthroughs happened to coincide with a glowing review of his early impression on the championship from DJR Team Manager Tom Moore, despite sitting outside the top 20 in what has proven an ultra-competitive season.

Moore was glowing of the 19-year-old's maturity and level head, both traits that served him well on his way to the development series crown, but again stressed that results will be tough to come by when the entire field has risen to the highest level.

“Everything he does off the track, you completely forget his age. He speaks and behaves 10 years older than what he is,” said Moore.

“The results on the track, he has a lot of time to grow in the sport and within the team.

“He’s probably entering the category at a very hard time when there’s a few years into a big technical regulation change and everyone is converging as far as the driver ability and the cars and all that sort of thing.

“If he was to come in two or three years ago, in 2023, there was a lot more spread in the field, it was probably a bit easier for a rookie to find his spot.

“But everyone is so dialled at the moment in the driver ability, the car set up, the team operation, it’s a very hard thing to get right when you’re starting from scratch like that.”

As has been widely publicised, Gray's arrival at the team came not even 18 months after another teenage star had a development deal with DJR come to an end, namely Kai Allen.

However, as DJR co-owner and Executive Chairman Dr Ryan Story elaborated on the Lucky Dogs podcast last month, the move to sign Gray was purely a matter of timing.

With Ford homologation duties - something which the famed squad openly struggled with in the Gen3 era - handed off to Triple Eight, the team were able to focus on their own operations in 2026, with Kostecki reaping the benefits.

With Allen now a race winner at Penrite Racing, and shaping up to be a team leader should Matt Payne depart amid speculation surrounding a move to GM, Dr Story believes that both parties were winners.

"I knew, and we knew, that he would end up on the grid in 2025," said Dr Story.

"The one thing I knew, is DJR and taking rookie on the grid in 2025, that rookie was going to fail. If we brought a young kid in, he was not going to be in an environment where he could be successful.

"Out of those driver choices [keeping Anton De Pasquale, Davison, or promoting Allen amid Kostecki's impending arrival last year], at the time that was the easiest one. We knew he would get a drive.

"Him ending up at Grove was almost an inevitability, that he would find a seat. But people wouldn't be talking about Kai Allen as a future superstar today if he drove for us last year, because we wouldn't have been able to support him the way that he would've needed.

"Fortunately now with Rylan Gray, we're able to do that."

Gray will resume his rookie season at a happy hunting ground in Tasmania, where he secured his first pole position and race win of his successful DUNLOP Super2 Series campaign last year.

The Tyrepower Tasmania Super 440 will be held from May 22-24. Tickets are on sale now.