Van Gisbergen's high praise for Davison
Shane van Gisbergen has given a positive appraisal of Sandown runner-up Will Davison.
The Shell V-Power Racing driver ended his weekend with second in the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint finale.
It topped off a remarkable Sunday for the DJR veteran, who overcame an electrical fire in Race 25 qualifying to start Race 26 from pole.
Davison also won Saturday’s opener, marking his first Sandown race win in 13 years.
Van Gisbergen, who recorded his 70th race win in Sunday’s finale, praised the Ford driver’s performance.
“Will [Davison] has certainly stepped up this year,” van Gisbergen said.
“He's a pretty good guy to race, and one of the guys I like racing.
“It's been surprising the turnaround in his speed this year, especially against Anton, I think Will’s probably doing better.”
Van Gisbergen and Davison drove away from the field off the line in Race 26, before contact between the Shell V-Power Mustangs left teammate Anton De Pasquale with steering damage.
Despite smoke hemorrhaging from the rear of his car in the opening stanza, Davison continued to apply pressure to the #97 Commodore, with the smog clearing on lap 9.
The Shell V-Power squad opted to keep Davison out until lap 23, seeing the 39-year-old dropping two seconds to van Gisbergen on cold tyres.
However, the strategy saw the DJR Mustang come alive in the closing laps, Davison setting a personal best lap on lap 28.
Davison set the fastest lap of the race on the following lap.
He closed the gap to the points leader to 0.4s, but ran out of laps to overthrow van Gisbergen.
Van Gisbergen, who claimed dual wins on Sunday, knew he had to catch Davison off the start.
“Will has been really fast this weekend and I followed him yesterday and he was driving very well,” van Gisbergen said.
“In the last race, I knew I had to get him at the start, so I put maximum pressure on him.
“At the end, I could see him coming, but I went as hard as I could, and I didn’t look in the mirror – I just kept pushing.”
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