Davison: First-year 23Red is earning respect

Will Davison believes "people are now respecting" the first-year Milwaukee Racing Supercars outfit following a string of solid results.

Phil Munday bought minnow Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport at the end of 2017, going from fielding two Commodores to one Falcon and recruiting Davison for his new 23Red Racing venture.

Davison is 15th in the standings – evenly splitting car builder Tickford Racing's four drivers – with eight top 10 finishes headlined by three sevenths.

He's joined by brother Alex for the PIRTEK Enduro Cup, the pair finishing 11th at Sandown, right behind Tickford's lead Chaz Mostert/James Moffat entry.

"I'm loving my time with Phil and the team," Davison told Supercars.com.

"Bit by bit we're growing. We're still a very small team, we're still certainly still underdogs, but people I think are respecting us now.

"They know we're serious about our team and we're achieving some good results.

"As a team we're performing well, but being a little team, it is tough.

"The level is very high, and even though finishing in the top 10 for us is a good result, in all reality, it's hard to get that excited with a P8.

"I'm a bit torn at the moment. I think we're doing a good job but naturally I still want to win and bit by bit we've got to find a way to be able to do that."

The Davisons took a retro-liveried Falcon to 11th at Sandown

The team completed its first private test at Winton before the Enduro Cup opener, its only running outside race meetings since the pre-season test in Sydney.

In addition to giving Alex miles in the Milwaukee Falcon, Davison said it was an important learning experience.

"There were a lot of things we needed to reassess, a brand-new team, literally just learning on the fly," he said.

"It's been really difficult, being able to make set-up changes and probably not being equipped to make as many changes as we would've liked, not having the parts to do so.

"We've been up, down, and around all year, but we've also tried to keep it relatively simple.

"Testing was really good, to be able to go over a bunch of stuff we've learnt this year, try and get a second opinion on a lot of stuff, also trying to think ahead and try a few new changes."

The Davison brothers raced together at Bathurst in 2014 and '15 with Erebus Motorsport, recording a best of fourth in '14 in a Mercedes.

That remains Alex's best result, while Will took Great Race victories in 2009 and '16.

"Phil Munday was a great friend of Peter Brock's and just to see the passion in his eyes for this race is what makes me excited to get there and see what we can do," Davison added.

"I think we're on that list of a team that could spring a strong surprise.

"Driving with my brother, all of these things add up to wanting to grab a result on that big day.

"We're just going to go and try and achieve our best result of the year at the moment and that's all we can do."