Australian motorsport legend Dick Johnson has found a new majority backer for his Supercars team, with Australian Baseball League club Melbourne Aces adding the team to their sporting portfolio.
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The deal, backed by Aces owner Brett Ralph, is for the baseball club to become the majority shareholder in Dick Johnson Racing from January.
It means the Ford powerhouse joins a sporting stable of clubs owned by the Aces which includes the Melbourne Storm in the NRL, netball's Sunshine Coast Lightning and NBL franchise Melbourne United.
Johnson has been seeking a new partner for his team after American billionaire Roger Penske's exit in 2020 following a five-year stint during which DJR won more than 50 races, three Supercars championships and a Bathurst 1000.
Founded in 1980 by Johnson, DJR has undergone three major ownership reshuffles in the past decade.
Competing under the Shell V-Power Racing brand in 2022, DJR is sitting in second in this year's teams championship with Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison third and fourth respectively in the driver standings.
Under the deal, Johnson and executive chairman Ryan Story will continue their day-to-day positions in the team and will oversee operations.
"Brett and the Ralph family are strategic investors at DJR, with the current management structure we have in place continuing to run the business day to day as they have been," Story said in a statement.
DJR are the fourth Supercars team to undergo an ownership change since the beginning of 2021 after Tony Quinn took a major shareholding in Triple Eight Race Engineering, the Grove Group's takeover of Kelly Racing and Peter Xiberras' purchase of Team Sydney - which is now PremiAir Racing.
The 2022 Supercars championship continues this weekend with the Sandown SuperSprint event in Melbourne.
Australian Associated Press
