Brothers in arms

They’ve paired up for the enduros for the last two seasons, but this weekend will be the first time the Davison brothers race side by side in the same garage.

Alex Davison steps into Erebus Motorsport’s #4 V8 Supercar at the Coates Hire Sydney 500, while Will contests his final round with the team, before shifting to TEKNO next year.

And it couldn’t come at a better place – the brothers had a huge battle to the finish on the Sydney streets in 2013 as Will was looking to secure third in the championship and ‘the best of the rest’ behind Red Bull duo Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes.

Alex is pleased to be back behind the wheel, steering the Mercedes Benz AMG E63, and still harbours hopes of landing a full-time drive in the category in 2016.

His last drive was in the Prodrive stable – with Will in the FPR garage next door – in 2013.

“It’s great to be racing at one of the sprint races again, it’ll be great to get back in the car,” Alex told v8supercars.com.au.

“Being the last round of the championship, jumping in without much preparation, I don’t have any expectations for the weekend – we’re going in without any specific performance expectations because it’s a tough ask even at the best of times.

“I know all the guys in the team well so that aspect of it has been seamless, and we’ll just go into practice, put our head down and do the best we can.”

Driving with his younger brother in the enduros, particularly at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 where they earned fourth place last year, has been a great experience. This weekend is another chance to tick something off the bucket list.

“We’ve both been really fortunate to be given the opportunity with Erebus to not only share a car together, which was a lot of fun and a great experience, but now to be teammates on different sides of the garage,” Alex said.

“So a couple of firsts in that regard.

“It’s not dissimilar when we were at FPR, but probably another step closer again, so we’re looking forward to that and another fantastic experience we’ve ticked off the list.”

Erebus’ driver selection has been hot news in the past fortnight, with regular pilot Ash Walsh replaced at Phillip Island by Dean Canto, sparking speculation the former full-time may take the #4 seat next season next to co-driver and friend David Reynolds.

Will Davison shifts to TEKNO Autosports and with the brothers contesting the enduros together the last two seasons, it wouldn’t be a shock if Alex popped up as a co-driver there.

However, he was tight-lipped on his situation for next year, and hopeful of keeping it clean this weekend at the Coates Hire Sydney 500.

“If we end up running competitively and getting a good result, that’s fantastic, if we’re not quite on the pace we’re just about putting a solid, consistent weekend together, which is what the team’s been looking for,” Alex said.

“I’m super appreciative of the opportunity to get back in the car … we’ve gone to the event with a setup direction I know, that I’ve driven with before and that worked quite well a the Gold Coast, we’ll see what we’ve got.”

Two years later, he still has a good laugh about that battle in Sydney.

The brothers were fighting for seventh on track in the year’s last race, and overtaking Alex would give Will enough points to finish third and above teammate Mark Winterbottom in the Championship.

“It’s a funny story because … I think it was, and I had no idea of the points situation,” Alex said.

“He was on the radio saying there was something going on with the points hoping I would help him out.

“Clearly the team was not going to say anything to me about that because he was battling another car in the team.

“I was just racing for my own position and he managed to pull up and did a desperado dive-bomb on the last lap.

“There were definitely no favours given to him – I blocked as hard as I could and he pulled off an all or nothing move and got the position on me.

“In hindsight, luckily, because I was happy he got third place – but at the time we were racing tooth and nail, so no favours!”

That eighth place finish followed on from 12th on the Saturday in Homebush and a podium finish the previous round, so Sydney is a place that has harboured good results for Alex in the past.