A RIGHT-REAR suspension issue was behind Anton De Pasquale’s failure to start the Melbourne SuperSprint finale.
De Pasquale had qualified seventh for Sunday’s race but pulled straight into the pits when cars left the infield paddock on their way to the grid ahead of the formation lap.
“Drove out, felt like a loose wheel, or like you’ve got the big hit in the rear kind of feeling, and something was loose,” De Pasquale told the broadcast at the time.
“Then it just ripped everything apart.
“It’s hard, you know, you don’t get to race; had a bit of bad luck this weekend, a bit of misfortune.
“But had some sort of car speed, so I was really looking forward to getting to the race and ending on a high.”
The did-not-start capped a nightmare Round 2 for De Pasquale.
Things had looked up when he stuck the #11 Shell V-Power Mustang on the front row for Thursday’s race and took the lead.
That proved a false dawn though, De Pasquale sliding to seventh.
He then was a Lap 1 casualty in the Friday race after losing out in a stoush with Matt Payne, and could do no better than 16th on Saturday.
De Pasquale is now 21st in the drivers’ championship, 11 places behind teammate Will Davison, while Dick Johnson Racing remains 10th in the teams’ standings.
