Adelaide 500: Dick Johnson backs Ford to bounce back in 2024 ahead of historic milestone

As Ford prepares to celebrate a historic milestone at the Adelaide 500, Dick Johnson has backed his team to bounce back in 2024 after they ‘struggled’ in the opening Gen3 season.

Ford legend Dick Johnson has backed his famous Supercars team to fight back in 2024 after an opening Gen3 season he described as a “struggle” as the squad celebrates a significant milestone at the Adelaide 500.

Johnson’s eponymous team will mark another chapter in its rich history at the season-ending Adelaide event when it brings up 500 championship rounds in Supercars.

Australia’s most historic motorsport team, Dick Johnson Racing is the first Supercars squad to reach the milestone.

The 500-round feat comes at the end of what has been a challenging season for the Ford homologation team amid an ongoing parity battle for the Mustangs for the start of the category’s Gen3 era.

Ford legend Dick Johnson has backed his famous Supercars team to fight back in 2024.

Leading into the final round of the season, DJR’s two drivers Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison sit eighth and 11th in the drivers’ championship, while the team sits fourth in the teams’ championship.

The team has had just one win for the year when De Pasquale won the second leg of the Townsville 500.

Johnson, one of the most famous names in Supercars, conceded the season had been a struggle for the Ford team, acknowledging the additional pressure being the homologation team had placed on everyone at the squad.

Supercars has sent a Gen3 Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro to the United States for comprehensive wind tunnel testing, which will take place in December in a bid to put an end to the parity debate.

Johnson was confident the off-season testing would provide answers to help thrust the team back into contention in 2024.

“It has been a struggle, not only for us but for many teams, which is something that is going to be rectified in the very near future,” Johnson said.

“That’s up to Supercars. We’ll wait and see what they come up with and we’re certainly looking forward to starting next year on a different foot.

“When you have been through a lot of success and not to have that success ongoing, you often question yourself and you try and find excuses etc.

“But we’re not trying to find excuses, we just want to find answers that are going to put it together, but unfortunately that is out of our control so we will just leave that to the others.

“We will put our 10 cents worth in and hopefully they’ll get everything right, which I’m sure they will and we’ll then be able to go out and I would suggest we will be back.

“I have been with Shell for over 54 years and to me it hurts to see that they’re not getting what we have – not promised – but what we are there to deliver for them.

“I see that’s going to change and I’m really looking forward to next year.”

Ford will mark another chapter in its rich history at the season-ending Adelaide event when it brings up 500 championship rounds in Supercars.

Johnson said the job developing the Mustang had taken a toll on all those involved at the team.

“It’s been a long year and we’re really looking forward to the end of it and giving everyone here a break because they deserve it,’ Johnson said.

“It’s been a lot of hard work as the team that has developed the Mustang for Ford, it has put a lot of pressure on all the guys and I think they deserve a rest.

“I think the other people just don’t realise what was involved in doing it.”

Johnson debuted the DJR team in 1981 at Symmons Plains in Tasmania and the team has since gone on to win 10 drivers’ championships, three teams’ championships and four Bathurst 1000 crowns.

The 78-year-old racing legend said he had not missed a single round since the DJR team debuted, but never imagined when he started he would still be involved 500 rounds later.

“It obviously means an awful lot (to me),” Johnson said.

“When I first got into it, I didn’t know what was going to happen day-to-day to be quite honest, let alone 500 weekends later.

“So it’s one of those situations where it was a day-to-day thing for me. If it worked out, it was fine, if it didn’t work out, I had to find a way to make it work out.

“It doesn’t matter who is driving, when the team is winning, it’s just absolutely fantastic to see the sheer joy that it gives every single person that works here.

“When they are standing on the top step of that podium it really makes them feel like they are a part of something special.”

Dick Johnson with drivers Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison. Picture: Supplied

Rating his first championship win in 1981, the year after his infamous run-in with a rock at Mount Panorama, as the highlight of his career in the sport, Johnson said he had no plans to step away from the racetrack any time soon.

“What else am I going to do? I’m not a grey nomad, I hate caravans. No, I don’t hate caravans, but the showers are too small,” Johnson said.

“I’ll be around for as long as the cars are still running around, I will still be there.

“What keeps me there, really, are the people that actually put me there.

“All the punters that have been very loyal to us over many, many years and to me they are very special.”

De Pasquale and Davison’s cars will pay homage to the legacy of DJR in Adelaide this weekend.

Their Mustangs will feature a blue Queensland 17 logo celebrating the history of the team in a nod to Johnson’s 1981 Tru Blue XD Falcon.

Originally published as Adelaide 500: Dick Johnson backs Ford to bounce back in 2024 ahead of historic milestone