Davison 'fascinated' about next 23Red challenges
Will Davison says he’s “fascinated” to see how the new 23Red Racing handles the challenges presented by the next batch of Supercars events, after its strong debut.
The outfit born out of Phil Munday’s majority purchase of Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport finished eighth in its first race at the Adelaide 500, with Will Davison in an ex-Tickford Racing Falcon.
Davison’s Milwaukee Ford was quick out of the blocks at the street circuit, including setting the fifth-fastest time in the very first session.
That gave Davison renewed confidence in Adelaide, where he won in 2012, eventually taking 12th in Race 2 to leave 11th in the standings.
Starting with the Coates Hire Supercars Melbourne 400 from Thursday, the next phase of the championship includes five events in eight weekends, with three different race formats and both of Supercars’ tyre compounds.
“This is always a full-on time of the year, obviously limiting damage [in Adelaide] was important,” Davison told Supercars.com.
“When we’re not experienced, it was important we weren’t fixing cars and were productively working through a weekend plan and pitstops and strategy and all of this sort of stuff.
“We’ve got to keep doing that in the next few events. There are some different events with different tyre compounds, a couple of very different combinations of tracks.
“It’ll be interesting and, for sure, a whole new set of challenges that I’m fascinated to see how we can perform.
“It was certainly a pleasant surprise to roll out [in Adelaide practice] and be genuinely quite quick and let’s hope we can keep that form up at different circuits.
“And that’s the hard bit, obviously, having the pace. When you’ve got that, finessing all of your one-percenters is your next step to being on a podium and that’s what we’ve got to fine tune.”
Davison says more running will let him and the team establish what its Falcon requires to build on the Adelaide base.
The squad's only running before its race debut came in Sydney Motorsport Park’s pre-season test, a month into team manager Rob Crawford’s tenure.
“The test was literally just getting the car moving,” he said.
“[In Adelaide with] the car, the speed, I sort of gelled pretty well but we kept it pretty simple all weekend.
“The tricky bit’s being consistent all weekend. We certainly were pretty quick all Friday, then we certainly had a couple of little hiccups but certainly much less than I expected.
“I know how hard this game is and I know you just cannot come in and be perfect straight off the cuff, it’s just not possible.
“The attitude within our team was really, really good. Rob Crawford’s come in and he’s really cracking the whip and he’s keen to be there, and he wants to set a pretty high standard of excellence.
“All of the guys are completely willing and ready for it, they’ve all got a really good attitude. It’s all good.
“We’ll keep learning as the year goes on.”
