The sleeping giant has awakened. After being dormant for the past two years, DJR Team Penske is emerging as a genuine threat to Supercars super squad Triple Eight.
Predictions that American-controlled DJR Team Penske was ready to take the fight to Triple Eight this year have been fulfilled by a strong start to the season that culminated in a breakthrough 1-2 runaway in the second leg of the Tasmania SuperSprint on Sunday.
![The Shell V-Power Racing Ford Falcons of New Zealanders Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin beat the Triple Eight ...](/web/20170412191816im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/h/a/o/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvhalp.png/1491729101630.jpg)
After showing front-running form in the season-opening Adelaide 500 and then dominating the Australian Grand Prix non-championship support races, the Shell V-Power Racing Ford Falcons of New Zealanders Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin beat the Triple Eight Holden Commodores of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes in tricky conditions at Symmons Plains Raceway, near Launceston.
It was a significant performance because in the previous two years following American racing legend Roger Penske's takeover of Dick Johnson Racing, the team had not been competitive at the compact but fast 2.41km track.
The clear-cut superiority of Coulthard and McLaughlin in Sunday's shortened 76-lap, 183km sprint race ā reduced from a scheduled 84 laps/200km to meet the time limit ā proved that DJR Team Penske is Triple Eight's new arch-rival.
What's more, under the ownership of Penske, the team has the resources and the talent to end Triple Eight's domination and, at the very least, is poised to be the main challenger for the V8 title.
It has spent the past two years rebuilding and reorganising under Penske's patronage with the expressed aim of becoming a championship contender in 2017.
Even before the season started, the big changes at DJR Team Penske raised expectations that this year would be a battle of the titan teams, with Triple Eight finally meeting its match in terms of funding and engineering depth.
Two years of rebuilding was headlined by the signing of rising Supercars star Scott McLaughlin, who was expected to lead DJRTP's surge.
The hype surrounding McLaughlin's arrival threatened to undermine the position of Fabian Coulthard, who many predicted would be overshadowed by his more celebrated compatriot.
But interestingly, if not surprisingly, it is Couthard who has been more successful so far, winning two of the four races at the Australian GP and scoring the team's first championship race win under Penske control with the win at Symmons Plains.
He has risen to the challenge and matched McLaughlin, who had the edge in qualifying and has been a regular on the podium since the Adelaide 500, which was commanded by defending Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen.
Coulthard is McLaughlin's first race-winning teammate and their friendly rivalry has lifted both their levels of performance and capitalised on the team's re-engineered and improved Falcon FG Xs.
Their sweep at Symmons Plains was also the team's first 1-2 result since 1998, back in the glory days of Dick Johnson Racing when it was one of the dominant squads of the early V8 era.
Coulthard recovered from being only sixth quickest on a rain-soaked track in qualifying to decisively delay his second pit stop to leap-frog McLaughlin, who started on the front row of the grid alongside pole-winner Jamie Whincup.
After early pacesetter Chaz Mostert lost the lead by sliding wide off the track on lap 58 while leading in his Prodrive Racing Falcon, Coulthard took control and comfortably kept McLaughlin, Whincup and a charging Craig Lowndes at bay to the finish.
The win moved him to just 20 points behind van Gisbergen, who was never a threat on Sunday.
Supercars' third front-running New Zealander was declared the winner of Saturday's 12-car crash-marred opening race of the Tasmania SuperSprint, but after only four laps were completed, officials later decided that championship points would be withheld.
Van Gisbergen fought back from a 15-second pit stop penalty for a driving infringement to salvage ninth place.
The next event of the Supercars championship is the April 22-23 twin-race Phillip Island 500.