MOTORSPORT: New owner for Dick Johnson Racing
Control or ownership of 22 of 25 Supercars entries has changed in the last five yearsBrett Ralph and his family have added to their extensive sports ownership portfolio, acquiring a majority stake of the oldest team in Supercars competition, Dick Johnson Racing, in the latest in a long line of Supercars team control changes announced over the past five years.
The purchase of a share in the Shell V-Power Racing-backed squad adds to an impressive list of interests for the family, including in the Melbourne Storm NRL team, the Melbourne Aces Baseball Club and the Sunshine Coast Lightning Super Netball team, while Ralph is a director of the Melbourne United National Basketball League outfit.
The breakdown of the new ownership structure has not been revealed, although Roger Penske had previously owned a 51 per cent portion of the team dating back to the end of 2014.
Penske officially parted with the company at the end of 2020, although multiple Penske-owned businesses remain listed as team partners to this day.
Curiously, the Ralph family-owned Jet Couriers business is a personal backer of team driver Anton De Pasquale, who currently sits third in the season standings, one place ahead of teammate Will Davison, who is in line for a contract extension.
“On behalf of the Ralph Family, we are honoured to join Dick Johnson Racing as a majority shareholder,” said Brett Ralph.
“We are very excited to be part of Australia’s most iconic race team who has winning in its culture, just like all of our other business ventures and partnerships.”
For the Dick Johnson Racing squad, day-to-day operations will continue unchanged, with Dick Johnson and Ryan Story remaining in its ownership group.
“Jillie and I are excited to welcome the Ralph Family into Dick Johnson Racing,” said Dick Johnson.
“We are immensely proud of the family culture we have created at DJR and to be working with a family who have the same values and views is extremely exciting and confidence-instilling.”
The move by the Ralph family is the latest in a long list of ownership or control changes that have impacted all bar one team on the current grid over the past five years, suggesting a bright future for a sport that investors see value in.
The Walkinshaw Andretti United outfit publicly got the ball rolling in October 2017, when international groups Andretti Autosport and United Autosports took a significant share of the team that had been operating under the HSV Racing banner.
In February 2019, Jason Gomersall was announced as an equity partner in Matt Stone Racing, while in June 2019 Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan purchased a 50 per cent stake in the Racing Entitlements Contract (REC) for that team’s number 99 entry.
Meanwhile, in November 2020, Kim Jones retired from Brad Jones Racing, with his share going to Brad Jones.
Ahead of the 2021 year, the Blanchard family utilised their already controlled REC as the basis of a new in-house team at CoolDrive Racing, while at a similar time Triple Eight Race Engineering announced a new ownership structure, with Tony Quinn taking a 40 per cent slice of the company.
Quinn’s shareholding was acquired from Tim Miles and Paul Dumbrell, with the Scot ultimately joined by Jessica Dane and Jamie Whincup, who reportedly hold 30 per cent of the company each, after team founder Roland Dane divested himself from the business.
Later in the same year, the Grove family announced full ownership of the former Kelly family-owned team, after the crew had run for the first portion of the season as a partnership.
The current season kicked off with the former Tekno Autosports/Team Sydney entries being sold to Peter Xiberras, with the outfit being re-branded as PremiAir Hire Racing.
Elsewhere earlier this year, Rusty French sold out his stake in Tickford Racing, leaving Rod Nash and Svan Burchartz as the squad’s lone shareholders.
The only team seemingly not involved in a form of ownership change has been Charlie Schwerkolt’s Team 18, which broke out as an independent entity for the start of the 2016 season, after previously having its original REC run as a customer arrangement with both the Tickford and Walkinshaw squads.
The Supercars championship continues this weekend with the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint at Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway.
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