Davison: Customer Tickford deal working well

Will Davison says the customer deal Milwaukee Racing has with Tickford Racing is serving the first-year Supercars squad well.

Phil Munday’s 23Red Racing entered Supercars this year, with Davison in the Tickford-built Falcon that won the Sandown 500 last year with Cameron Waters and Richie Stanaway.

A support deal is part of that arrangement, and Davison sits in the thick of the four Tickford drivers in the standings.

In 16th, Davison is behind Chaz Mostert and Mark Winterbottom in 11th and 13th, and ahead of Waters and Stanaway in 17th and 24th.

While the former factory Ford squad is enduring a tough season, Davison says the alliance “works pretty well”.

“We do our own thing, completely, but we get a little bit of support from them,” he told Supercars.com.

“I don’t really know exactly what set-ups they’re running, but we get a little bit of direction and a bit of assistance.

“We’re still doing our own thing a little bit but we’re getting good support there, trying more to support my engineer and help him understand the car.

“It’s still hard as a single-car team but from my experience with customer relationships I think they’re doing a good job and an honest job, and I feel like I’m getting equal equipment to what they’re running.

“Obviously they’re doing to be developing and moving and over time hopefully we’ll be able to keep up with them.”

Davison joined Munday’s operation after two years with Triple Eight customer Tekno Autosports.

He has outlined that purely following Tickford’s path would not be the way to go, and believes he and engineer Rob Palermo could add to the mix in the other direction.

The two-time Bathurst winner drove for the team during its Ford Performance Racing days, winning 10 races between 2011-13.

“Fortunately they know me quite well, so I think they trust my feedback as well and what I’m able to add, so it’s not just a one-way street,” he said.

“We are separate teams, absolutely, I’d like to think I can have some input as well to the direction the car needs to go and obviously we lean on them for their help and support.

“But they’re happy to hear what we have to say and myself and Rob are already doing some good stuff that’s our stuff and our processes, which I think is beneficial for them as well.

“I think it’s mutually working really well and a really healthy relationship.”

After six events, Davison has a best grid position of eighth, recorded three times, and race finish of seventh at Barbagallo Raceway among five top 10s.

“We’re certainly getting a bit stronger in our understanding of the car and what does what on the car,” he said.

“But obviously as a whole, the Tickford guys included, we’re lacking a bit.

“We’re starting to get it, still struggling with a couple of similar trends and issues that we’re trying to get our head around.

“For us as a new team, at the moment, it’s really just making sure we at least maximise what we’ve got and we’re at least starting to do that a little bit more consistently now.

“That’s promising and if we can do that all of the time, obviously we want to dig deep and find a little bit more potential in the car somewhere.”