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Davison's damage

07 Nov 2015
Will hopeful "significant damage" to his Erebus Merc will be repaired for race two after a first lap incident that is being investigated.
3 mins by James Pavey
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Will Davison is hopeful his Mercedes Benz AMG E63 will be repaired in time for this afternoon after substantial front-end damage in the first race of the ITM 500 Auckland.

Davison was involved in a lap one incident with Tim Slade that is under investigation.

The Erebus driver spun at turn six and was caught up with innocent bystander Fabian Coulthard. The contact with the Freightliner Commodore was what caused the damage, both headed straight for pit lane.

But while Coulthard was able to get back out and finish the race, Davison's crew continues to work on the #9 in hope of contesting the second 60km soft tyre race this afternoon. Davison qualified 16th on the grid for this one, and started 12th alongside Slade in the opener.

"It's actually done a significant amount of damage," Davison said.

"Obviously the front end - all the front radiator, water line, radiator support ... the air intake - everything's crushed up, brake ducts, all that stuff.

"It's just time [consuming] putting everything back together. I feel bad for the guys more than anything else.

"I was hit from behind in the incident, spun round, and the damage was from Coulthard who unfortunately got caught up in it.

"So, more I feel for the guys - for myself, it is what it is. It's disappointing but we got a good start, into the 10, I was taking it pretty easy at that stage, watching the two cars in front of me that were belting into each other.

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"It's always annoying when you're not being the aggressor and you're taken out but it's the way it goes."

With 40 minutes to go there was still plenty of work to do do.

"I think we'll be ok ... but we haven't put it on the flat patch, checked the suspension or anything. I'm pretty sure that's alright but still got a pretty big hit on the left rear.

"We've got to get all this integral running stuff done first and then make sure the fine-tuning and setup is good for the race. Got to get the thing running first before we check all the alignments and everything."

Davison hadn't seen vision of the incident but was interested to get a better idea of what happened behind him.

"Doesn't change my situation - I don't really care, to be honest, but I'm sure someone will get a penalty for it.

"I don't really know, I have no idea what happened really - I'd be interested to se the vision for interest sake. From my point of view I just got hit from behind ... it was a bit of a strange one."

Coulthard's Brad Jones Racing teammate Jason Bright stopped on track on the final lap and will not contestthe final race, with the team having to replace the Team BOC car's engine.

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