Win edges DJR close to rare Supercars feat

Anton De Pasquale’s breakthrough victory at last week’s NTI Townsville 500 has pushed Dick Johnson Racing closer to a special milestone.

De Pasquale snapped a 25-race drought for the Shell V-Power Racing Team dating back to Will Davison’s Pukekohe win in September last year.

The win was the iconic Ford team’s 148th, bringing it ever closer to the 150 wins mark.

DJR’s first win came in its very first race, courtesy of the legendary Dick Johnson at Symmons Plains in 1981.

Johnson won the first of his five championships and the first of his three Bathursts later in the season.

Scott McLaughlin won the team’s 100th race at Hidden Valley Raceway, and won a team record 48 races — also the most by a Ford driver in Supercars history.

De Pasquale has won eight races for DJR since joining in 2021

Just 10 different full-time drivers in DJR’s 43-year-history have won for the team — Johnson, McLaughlin, De Pasquale, Davison, John Bowe, Paul Radisich, Fabian Coulthard, James Courtney, Steven Johnson and Chaz Mostert.

Of the 10, four drivers — Johnson, McLaughlin, Bowe and Courtney — have won championships for the team.

Only two teams — Triple Eight and Walkinshaw Andretti United — have achieved 150 or more Supercars championship race wins.

WAU was first to the benchmark, but did most of its winning under the Holden Racing Team guise.

To date, all 188 of WAU’s wins came in Commodores, with the team switching to Ford from 2023.

All 148 wins for DJR have come in Fords — but it’s a different story for Triple Eight, which began life as a Ford team in 2004.

Triple Eight’s first Supercars win — with Craig Lowndes at Eastern Creek in 2005 — came in a Falcon.

Triple Eight, also the only team to take 200 wins, won 51 races in Fords before switching to Holden in 2010, and won a record 190 races in Commodores between 2010 and 2022.

The reigning champions switched to Chevrolet in 2023, and have already won seven races this season — four for Broc Feeney, and three for Shane van Gisbergen.

Title rivals Erebus Motorsport have also won with three different brands — Mercedes-AMG, Holden and Chevrolet.

DJR could hit the magic 150 when the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship resumes at the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight on July 28-30.

The Sydney event will feature two races, including the first ever night race of the Gen3 Mustang vs Camaro era.

Most Supercars wins (current teams)

248: Triple Eight Race Engineering188: Walkinshaw Andretti United148: Dick Johnson Racing81: Tickford Racing14: Brad Jones Racing, Erebus Motorsport7: Grove Racing1: Team 18, Matt Stone Racing0: Blanchard Racing Team, PremiAir Racing

Most wins wins for DJR

48: Scott McLaughlin30: Dick Johnson, John Bowe8: Anton De Pasquale, Fabian Coulthard, Paul Radisich7: James Courtney5: Will Davison3: Steven Johnson1: Chaz Mostert