{"id":552293,"date":"2026-03-20T07:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T07:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/552293\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T07:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T07:05:15","slug":"story-opens-up-on-djr-davison-de-pasquale-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/552293\/","title":{"rendered":"Story opens up on DJR Davison\/De Pasquale debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

RYAN Story has touched on the awkward element behind a \u201cbrutally hard decision\u201d Dick Johnson<\/a> Racing had to make a little more than 18 months ago.<\/p>\n

That is, which of its long-time drivers, Will Davison<\/a> or Anton De Pasquale<\/a>, it was going to cut to accommodate the recruitment of superstar Brodie Kostecki<\/a> for 2025.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Lucky Dogs podcast which Kostecki co-hosts, Story unsurprisingly detailed how the engineering department was extensively consulted and insisted that choosing Davison was \u201cright for us\u201d \u2013 even if the veteran only lasted another 12 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a hard decision for a number of reasons,\u201d Story explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I just told you before how close a bond I have with (majority owner) Brett Ralph and the only reason why I know Brett Ralph is because of Anton.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut Anton and I never got on personally very well, and he\u2019d tell you that too.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust for whatever reason, we didn\u2019t quite click. I don\u2019t know why, I think that just happens in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the decision itself was difficult. And it was the same with the decision to bring Rylan Gray<\/a> in this year (for) Will.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill is someone who is like family in a lot of ways. He\u2019s obviously had two stints with DJR.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe desperately tried to sign him\u2026 when Erebus made the move from southeast Queensland down to Melbourne (for 2016).\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralph\u2019s company Jet Couriers still features on De Pasquale\u2019s helmet, even with him now into his second season at Team 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (De Pasquale) doesn\u2019t talk to me, but he talks to them,\u201d chuckled Story, who admitted both \u2018ADP\u2019 and Kai Allen<\/a> have flourished since moving on.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Of all the driver decisions DJR has faced in recent years, Story actually noted the one to pass up on Allen was easiest.<\/p>\n

That was said not as a slight on the 2023 Super2 champion, but an honest reflection on where DJR was at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople wouldn\u2019t be talking about Kai Allen as a future superstar today if he drove for us last year,\u201d said Story.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we wouldn\u2019t have been able to support him the way that he would have needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately now with Rylan Gray, we are able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kostecki leads the drivers\u2019 championship heading into Round 3 next month at Taup\u014d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RYAN Story has touched on the awkward element behind a \u201cbrutally hard decision\u201d Dick Johnson Racing had to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-552293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}