After many years of great promise for factory-backed Ford Performance Racing Will Davison has stepped up to the mark to lead the V8 Supercar Championship for the first time in his career.
Albeit only the first weekend of a long year, Davison won his first race since taking Bathurst with Garth Tander in a Holden in 2009 - the first Clipsal 500 win in Adelaide for an FPR team that has been constantly thriving for lead status in the shadow of TeamVodafone.
Davison’s team-mate Mark Winterbottom was second today in the Orccon Steel FPR Falcon meaning they are 1-4 in the Championship. Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander was third today and in the same position in the Championship. Current Champion Jamie Whincup is second in the points after today’s race and a win yesterday.
Davison defected to Ford in 2010 from HRT and had a horror year. It was more shattering given the year before he had pushed Whincup all the way in the 2009 year.
He admitted to having his confidence absolutely shattered in 2010.
“In 2010 I did, that was just an absolute nightmare,” he said. “All of last year proved to me that things will come right. In the back half of last year there were a lot of races I was in contention to win. As long as you are a contender every weekend and consistently your time will come.”
With FPR flying home late last year they have clearly continued that form. TeamVodafone might well have a team challenger.
“We know we have got good cars. We’ve had a year of hard work last year with good and bad results. We knew we would start the year well but it’s never guaranteed, let alone a whole team of results,” said Winterbottom.
“You need all those cars doing well. When you finish 1-2 it doesn’t get much better.”
It was a solid weekend for Tander as well. He has finished the last two years in the Middle East with next to no points before Adelaide was restored to the opening event of the season.
“Whenever we go to the Middle East it’s a sour start for me,” Tander said.
“So I’m very happy to be here third in the points with two solid podiums this weekend. Just happy to get this behind us and get on with the Championship. Everyone has talked a big game in the off-season but now we know where the level is at.”
Tander’s team-mate James Courtney had a bad start to the day when he caused a red flag in qualifying with a mechanical issue that followed an overnight rebuild of his car by his Holden Racing Team.
Further issues just before the race meant he started from pit lane. The nightmare continued with further dramas and he scrambled to complete 65 of the 78 laps.
The day ended early for Jonathon Webb in his Tekno Autosports Commodore and Greg Murphy in the Pepsi Max Holden with a heavy crash in qualifying that took them both out of the later race.
Only 13 cars finished on the lead lap in today's 78-lap marathon which, amazingly, went from start to finish without the appearance of a Pedders Safety Car.
Craig Lowndes was fifth from Shane van Gisbergen, David Reynolds, Lee Holdsworth, Fabian Coulthard and Tim Slade.
Just one car - James Moffat - failed to finish with power steering problems in his Norton Falcon, while Courtney had a second tailshaft failure and limped home in 25th, 13 laps down.
The V8 Supercars teams will move to Albert Park for the non-championship event at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in a fortnight's time.
The next championship event will be at Symmons Plains in Tasmania on March 30-April 1.
Cole Hitchcock | Media Manager | D +61 7 5630 0315
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