Davison: DJR back aiming for wins after early slump
Will Davison says the Shell V-Power Racing Team’s focus is back on winning races after the Ford squad’s lacklustre start to 2023.
Davison arrives at the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint having taken a pole and won a race at Wanneroo last year (pictured).
Wins and poles have eluded Dick Johnson Racing so far this year, with the team struggling at the first round in Newcastle.
The team returned to form in Melbourne with De Pasquale scoring a pole, with Davison also running at the front.
Strategy and penalties cost the team results — Davison lost a podium due to a pit infringement — but, regardless, DJR is back at the front.
That alone for Davison is a “cool” feeling, with the veteran pleased to see his team back in the sweet spot.
“We’re making big progress, and we’re really focusing on performance now. It feels like we’re back racing again,” Davison told The Podium podcast.
“The first two events was nearly like coming up for air — everyone was very tired, very under the weather.
“There were so many other fires we felt like we were putting out just to get [to Newcastle], and now things are more normal.
“We’ve got things under control, and we’re starting to hone in on those little small details to go fast and focus on winning races.
“It's really cool to be back in that position again.”
Davison cited DJR's Ford homologation team efforts and “horrible” test days as being behind the team’s slow start to the year.
Neither Shell V-Power Ford cracked the top 10 in Newcastle, although Davison was adamant it wasn’t a matter of speed, or lack thereof.
Those fears were allayed come Albert Park as the red Mustangs returned to the front.
“We just didn’t have a great build-up, which was frustrating,” Davison said.
“We just had a couple of unfortunately really horrible test days. We got nothing done from a performance point of view.
“We were so busy trying to get on top of gremlins — a lot of unfamiliar things, a lot things out of our control that we had to face.
“I knew going [to Newcastle] we were a little bit underprepared, we had no real knowledge of the car.
“That just caught us out — it wasn’t a lack of speed, there were some underlying issues that we were working through which hampered our results.
“We knew we were better than that — I think we were able to show potential at the Grand Prix, to show we have speed.”
Davison and Anton De Pasquale are 11th and 18th heading to Western Australia.
Tickets for the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint are on sale on Supercars.com and Ticketek.com.
