Davison: Tassie tyre deg unknown with Gen3

Will Davison is unsure how the Super Soft tyres will last with the new Gen3 cars as they make their racing debut at Symmons Plains.

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship resumes this weekend at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.

This weekend’s round is the first in 2023 to be solely held on Dunlop’s Super Soft compound, which was used alongside the Hard compound at Albert Park.

The 2.4km Symmons Plains circuit features the slowest corner on the calendar, Turn 4, and another hard stop at Turn 6.

It’s one of the toughest circuits on brakes, but given the temperatures, isn’t as tough on tyres.

So far, the Gen3 cars haven’t struggled significantly with tyre degradation, with the Super Soft tyre used for short stints in Melbourne.

However, given the return of the Super Soft tyre, Davison suggested there’s still a question mark over tyre life — but reiterated that the cool conditions should still play a role.

“It’s one of the circuits on the calendar that doesn’t have huge tyre degradation,” the Shell V-Power Racing Team driver said.

DJR was a force in Tassie in 2022

“That means strategy options are open at that circuit.

“It’s a short lap, like Perth, so you have to be careful not to go down a lap when you pit.

“You can run long on the tyres there. We know these cars are a little bit harder on the tyres, but haven’t quite seen the degradation we all expected.

“It’s certainly a different track to Perth, which has long, loaded corners, and is very tough on the tyres.

“Tasmania, very short, sharp-style corners. Very different set of tools there.

“We’re not sure how the tyres are going to last, but generally, temperature isn’t an issue in Tasmania. It’s cold, which makes the tyres last.”

Dick Johnson Racing has been one of the form squads at Symmons Plains, with Shell Fords scoring podiums in all three races in 2022.

Davison also scored a pole position last year, his first of nine in 2022 — but stopped short of signing off a repeat of the team’s Tasmania form.

However, Davison himself is going from strength to strength — the two-time Symmons race winner has qualified in the top 10 in each of the last six races this season, the only driver to do so.

Across the Perth weekend, Davison jumped from 16th to ninth in the points.

“We’ve seen that the past is irrelevant with this car,” said Davison, who won in Tasmania in 2012 and 2016.

“We don’t have a huge amount of learnings that translate or carry over.

“We’ve had great success at Tassie the last few years… we understand what the car needs to feel like, where you need to be strong.

“But we haven’t run this car there. We’ll try and have a clear mind, and really focus on the progression we’ve made in the first three events.

“We’ll be doing our homework, and hopefully we get ourselves on the podium.”

Davison and Anton De Pasquale are ninth and 19th in the standings heading to this weekend’s fourth round of the 2023 season.

Supercars will hit the track for the first time on Saturday for Practice 1 at 9:00am local time.

Tickets for the event are on sale on Supercars.com and Ticketek.com.