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Davison gunning for winners' circle

16 Jan 2015
"I'm getting very itchy feet to start upsetting a few parties and ruffling a few features," Erebus star says, entering second year with team.
3 mins by James Pavey
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Former Championship runner-up Will Davison is looking to take Erebus Motorsport further to the front in 2015, and improve on the 14th place finish he earned in his first season with the Mercedes team.

While there were a few highlights in his first 12 months with Erebus - such as ARMOR ALL Pole Position at the Sydney NRMA 500, five top five finishes including a podium at Townsville, and a win for 2014 teammate Lee Holdsworth - Davison is desperate to get back into the winners' circle.

"I'm getting very itchy feet to start upsetting a few parties and ruffling a few feathers," he told v8supercars.com.au.

"It only makes you hungrier when you go through what I've gone through - and that's why I've done it."

Over the past few years Davison has been a consistent front-runner, finishing runner-up in 2009, scoring an impressive run of statistics in '12 and being the first car home after the two Triple Eight Commodores in '13. His choice to move to Erebus was partly to assist a developing team challenge the usual front-runners.

"I know both ends of the scale, so to speak, so I'll make sure I'm ready to go ruffle up some people," Davison said.

"I've been in the fastest car and it's very easy to forget I scored the Pole Award three years ago with 19 front row qualifyings ... my average was 3.4 after 33 races in 2012. It's very easy to forget that - it was only three years ago, but I think in 28 of the 33 races I qualified in the top five.

"It's very easy when you're in that position to get cocky and take it for granted - I've never done that because I am aware of how hard it is, to have that right car and team behind you.

"Obviously [I will] help Erebus build our car up."

Chatting to v8supercars.com.au, Davison named Townsville his highlight of 2014, where he finished third on Saturday and he and Holdsworth led the charge during Friday practice.

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While results were not as consistent after that event - with fourth at Bathurst Davison's best finish until the end of the season - the 32-year old said it came down to the program behind the scenes.

"On the outside it might look like that, but on the inside we know what's going on - what new bits you've got in the car and what bits you don't," he said. "We weren't able to get those gains just yet in the engine department, and we were still playing around with the chassis stuff a lot."

Once enduro season hits and the calendar is compacted towards the end of the season, there just wasn't the opportunity leap forward with development.

"We know the timeframes we've got - I knew it wasn't going to happen in the back half of the season. We've got a bit of time now to put things in place."

Promising signs have Davison hopeful about the team's performance in 2015, with the V8 Supercars sydney.com Test Day just 22 days away, after a few disappointments toward the end of the year, which have proven motivators for Davison.

"To be honest it could've very easily been different," he said. "Gold Coast Sunday, qualifying fifth and having one of the quickest cars out there - Sunday could've very easily been a podium.

"Phillip Island Sunday my car was the best it had been all year. I finished fifth - very promising signs. And Homebush scoring pole ... we were a bit up and down but there's plenty to be optimistic about.

"We've still got a lot to gain."

Davison will be joined by Erebus' new recruit Ash Walsh this season,who finished runner-up in the V8 Supercars Dunlop Series for the past two years and performed well over the Pirtek Enduro Cup.

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