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Back to September 2011 Motorsports News Archive
| 18-09-2011 at 11:00: Davison Chases L&H 500 Title | |
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Davison has by his standards been hot and cold since his switch from the Toll Holden Racing Team to his Trading Post car under the FPR banner but took pole position for tomorrow’s race in combination with his experienced co-driver Luke Youlden. Their combination and strategy led to the front of the grid position ahead of his former HRT team-mate Garth Tander, who he won with at Phillip Island in 2009, and his co-driver Nick Percat with SP Tools Kiwi pair Shane Van Gisbergen and John McIntyre third. Youlden became the 50th driver in Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship history to record a pole position, while it was Davison’s fourth career pole and second this season for Ford Performance Racing. They all held out the twin TeamVodafone favourites of Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes (sixth after Lowndes badly missed the start in his qualifying race) and the Jamie Whincup/Andrew Thompson combination who were fourth. Being front of the grid is far from a major advantage across 500kms at the constantly changing Phillip Island track but its better than being at the back. Davison recognises that more than anyone. “It’s a good starting point but it won’t mean much two laps into tomorrow. At least today we showed we have got a good car,” Davison said. “I’m a bit surprised to be P1 but will be very happy if I’m standing here tomorrow. It’s been nice to be racing at the front this year but as a team we want to be doing better than we are. “I’m extremely hard on myself and satisfied with the year but I want to be performing better. I want to challenge to win races in this back half of the year. To date it has been a good year but there is a lot of glory to go, starting this weekend.” Davison is preparing to double stint at the end of tomorrow’s race, tipping that a lot of teams will use that strategy. “We will have to be on our toes and have a whole heap of different strategies ready to go. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself right now, we’ve got a lot of work to do yet.” Veteran Tander has slotted in well with his impressive new partner Nick Percat who many top is not long away from getting a fulltime Championship drive. Tander, too, reiterated that changeable conditions will be the key. “It is so much about the conditions here,” he said. “If it is like today it’s going to be a very tough and long day tomorrow. The track wasn’t in a very good mood, that’s for sure. Our team though has been very good on strategy right in the past so we will see how we go.” Davison streeted the field in the first qualifying race today and Van Gisbergen did exactly the same in the second before their co-drivers shored up the front row of the grid with steady drives and strategy. The Kelly Racing entries of David Reynolds/Tim Blanchard (Stratco Racing) and Greg Murphy/Allan Simonsen occupy the fourth row of the grid, while rounding out the 10 is Mark Winterbottom/Steve Richards ahead of the second Toll HRT Commodore of James Courtney/Cameron McConville. The field will next hit the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit at 10.30am AEST on today for a warm-up session prior to the start of the 113-lap, L&H 500 to round out the weekend of action. |
Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison has challenged himself to finish what he started and bring home an endurance trophy to his inconsistent outfit in tomorrow’s challenging L&H 500 at Phillip Island.^ Back to top ^
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