Auckland: American motor sport icon Roger Penske expects his partnership with V8 Supercars legend Dick Johnson to become a winning combination next year if their team continues its recent rapid progress.
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Penske bought a controlling share of Dick Johnson Racing to form DJR Team Penske at the start of the year, rescuing the Ford folk hero's cash-strapped squad.
After a difficult start, including former V8 champion Marcos Ambrose stepping aside after just two events into his return from nine years racing in the USA, DJRTP has developed into a regular top 10 contender with stand-in driver Scott Pye.
Penske is making his third visit to a V8 event at this weekend's Auckland SuperSprint at Pukekohe Park Raceway, hoping to see further improvement since witnessing one of DJRTP's worst performances at Barbagallo Raceway, near Perth, seven months ago.
The Detroit-based business tycoon, who expanded his global transport services conglomerate into Australasia two years ago, is confident that signing race-winning New Zealander Fabian Coulthard to lead an expanded two-car Ford Falcon team from next year will provide a further lift.
"He's a winner and I think that he'll bring some value to the team," said Penske at the official opening of Penske New Zealand's new headquarters in Auckland on Thursday.
He was impressed by Melbourne-based Coulthard's performances with Brad Jones Racing, winning races in the past three seasons in the small Albury based squad's Holden Commodore.
"We wanted a driver that's been able to win and he's demonstrated that," Penske said. "I think that the skills he has communicating with the engineers is excellent and, certainly, meeting him as a person, I felt that he would fit into our organisation.
"I think he's going to do a good job for us. He's thrown in his lot with us now, even though he was in a good car already."
Pye has been retained to partner Coulthard after a late decision following his strong performance in the Bathurst 1000 before a late mechanical failure caused him to crash.
Penske, 78, runs a multi-billion dollar diversified automotive and transportation empire and fields front-running teams in American Indycar and NASCAR stock car racing.
His stable of drivers in the USA includes Australian Will Power, winner of the 2014 IndyCar Series title and close runner-up to teammate Juan Pablo Montoya in this year's Indianapolis 500, which Team Penske has won a record 16 times.
Although Penske expected DJRTP to contend for race wins in 2016, he cautioned that reaching the top of V8 Supercars with a largely new team wouldn't be easy.
"I would hope next year that we could be on the top step of the podium, for sure," he said. "We expect to do better. I'm not the kind of person that says that we're going to win all the races or even half of them. What we want to be is go home every night and say 'We were competitive today'.
"We have to get better as a team.
Penske was encouraged by DJRTP's progress with Pye in difficult circumstances since his last visit to a V8 event in early May.
"I'm never happy unless I'm winning all the races, so right now you'd have to say I have a long way to go," he said. "But I think the progress Dick and the team have been able to accomplish, I feel good about it. If you'd talked to me maybe six months ago, I would've said 'Wow, what have I gotten myself into'.
"But while we have some work to do, we've made some great progress. We have a lot to learn, but you can be sure we're not going to stop until we get to where we need to go – and you know where that is."
