{"id":136123,"date":"2025-11-15T09:06:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/136123\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T09:06:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:06:18","slug":"supercars-news-djr-recruit-rylan-gray-makes-early-start-at-sandown-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/136123\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: DJR recruit Rylan Gray makes early start at Sandown 500"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Rylan-Gray-DJR.jpg\" alt=\"DJR\u2019s rookie recruit makes early start at Sandown 500\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRylan Gray. Image: InSyde Media<\/p>\n<p>Tickford Racing\u2019s Super2 Series leader is getting an early look at life as a Dick Johnson Racing driver ahead of his graduation to the Supercars Championship with the squad in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old was recently <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-dick-johnson-racing-2026-will-davison-rylan-gray-contract\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced to be replacing veteran Will Davison next season<\/a>, one of<a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2026-rookies-driver-market-silly-season-contracts-gray-bates-stewart-ojeda-walls\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> five rookies amid a wave of young talent washing into the series.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gray will be teamed with star Brodie Kostecki and is already doing all he can to learn from the 2023 Supercars champion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe plan this weekend is just to shadow Brodie,\u201d Gray told Speedcafe inside the DJR garage at Sandown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s very experienced in this game and to learn off him is the main goal. He\u2019s been really good already, I\u2019ve asked him lots of questions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got the weekend ahead to gel before next year, so I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gray said Tickford is fully supportive of his bid to make an early start at DJR.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got the permission slip to put a different shirt on,\u201d he smiled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went down and saw them today and had a joke with everyone. It was pretty good down there, but it\u2019s super cool to be in this garage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdelaide we\u2019re just Super2 based,\u201d he added, in reference to the Adelaide Grand Final later this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got a championship to try and wrap up, so full focus on that and then hopefully come Sunday we can relax and watch the main race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2025-sandown-500-david-noble-dick-johnson-racing-comments-will-davison-decision-exit-djr\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Aren\u2019t many fairytales\u2019: DJR boss details Davison decision<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While much of the fallout from DJR\u2019s dramatic driver decision has centred on Davison\u2019s forced retirement, Gray is ready to start his own journey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been very cool. To drive for DJR is a dream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGrowing up I watched this team winning everything. It\u2019s super cool to join them and to say I\u2019m driving with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team environment is really, really professional. I\u2019m looking forward to getting it all underway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gray is not expected to have his first drive of a DJR Mustang until the new year, although is already familiar with Gen3 machinery following three wildcard outings with Tickford.<\/p>\n<p>  <a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/289781\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" alt=\"\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/289781.gif\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n  <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rylan Gray. Image: InSyde Media Tickford Racing\u2019s Super2 Series leader is getting an early look at life as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16901,111,139,69,80222,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-136123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-dick-johnson-racing","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-rylan-gray","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}