Davison's Erebus Merc on Second Row

Will Davison has equaled the team’s best qualifying effort, clinching fourth for today’s 200km race at the Tyrepower Tasmania 400.

Team boss Ryan Maddison said it was positive to back up yesterday’s qualifying effort – Davison and teammate Lee Holdsworth were elevated to fifth and sixth after Craig Lowndes’ exclusion from the second session.

“It’s nice to be able to back it up – in this industry you need repeatability of results – not highs and lows, you need consistency, ” Maddison told v8supercars.com.au.

“We’ve only got one extremely fast Volvo, and two extremely fast Triple Eight cars in front of us, so we’re in front of a fairly strong pedigreed field with Will in that position.

“We’ll see how we go in this race, it can throw up a lot, but it’s looking good… We know the cars can race well, we know they’ve got the ability to go the distance and run strong, so there’s really no reason at all we can’t expect to have a strong result here today.”

This is just Davison’s second Championship event in the Mercedes-Benz AMG, and while he said he’d take some time to adjust to the car, Maddison wasn’t surprised he had come on so strong.

“He’s obviously a pedigree driver, he finished third in the Championship and was always up there for the last number of years, there was a lot of question marks whether the team could deliver the hardware, and I guess, surprised with his change … to come to Erebus.

“No I’m not surprised with how quickly he’s adapted.”

Davison ran into trouble at the hairpin yesterday, and had trouble engaging reverse gear, instead wedging himself in the sand.

Holdsworth was sandwiched between two cars, his Merc up on two wheels, but managed to climb from lowest point 15th to 10th in what he described as a rollercoaster day.

“Will was disappointed with himself yesterday after the race, we said, ‘right what are we going to do to regain that again today?’. Both of them have done exactly what they need to do to put both of the cars inside the top 10 once again,” Maddison said. 

The team’s best finishing position in a race is also fourth, which Lee Holdsworth achieved with Craig Baird at the Wilson Security Sandown 500 last year.

Holdsworth’s car is running blank panels this weekend, as the team still hunts for a major sponsor. Long-time supporter BEKO dons the sides of Davison’s car by request.

Click here for full qualifying results. Race Six begins at 3.55pm AEDT.