Davison wins Perth thriller
Will Davison has pulled off a shock victory for Erebus Motorsport and denied Craig Lowndes his 100th V8 Supercars win in a thrilling late race battle at Barbagallo Raceway.
Davison and Lowndes started seventh and eighth on the grid, had cleared yesterday's dominant Pepsi Max Fords - and on lap 79 of 83 Davison made the dive at turn six and passed the Red Bull Commodore for the race lead.
Lowndes looked as if he was in the box seat as the soft versus hard tyre battle played out - but the Erebus E63 crashed the party in Perth, delivering Davison his first win for the team and first win as a driver since Townsville 2013.
He had an emotional clash with James Courtney after being nudged out of a podium position at the last round in Tassie - but today he went all the way and crossed the line with a 5.6sec lead over Lowndes.
"I don't know what to say - a podium would've been incredible," an elated Davison said on the podium.
"It's been a dry spell - we had a good car and after the disappointment of Tassie, here I just wanted top five, just to clear the weekend.
"I know CL's on number 99, I knew how much he wanted it - but it's been a while for me and for Erebus ... the team has worked so hard and I always said it would be sweeter than ever with this team."
Lowndes was proud of his and Red Bull's 'fightback' but ultimately didn't have the tyres at the end to take it to Erebus.
Third place was also unpredictable, with Fabian Coulthard coming from the back of the grid after an off in the sand at turn six ruined his qualifying. He powered on through a cool suit failure and recovered the day in his Freightliner Commodore.
A range of strategies played out over the 83 laps, but while early focus had been on the Prodrive Fords - all four starting on soft tyres - and Shane van Gisbergen with an extra fresh set of hards, it wasn't to be.
Pole man Chaz Mostert was the first FG X home, finishing fourth, with James Courtney, Garth Tander, James Moffat, Nick Percat, David Reynolds and Michael Caruso finishing in the top 10 - Van Gisbergen was 14th, Winterbottom 15.
Davison's teammate Ash Walsh brought out the Safety Car early, bogged at turn six, and a late race incident between Scott Pye and Andre Heimgartner threated to bring out the Safety Car - but Davison had already snuck past the Red Bull on his way to the Erebus' team's second win, the last at Winton in 2014 with Lee Holdsworth behind the wheel.
It was a forgettable day for Jamie Whincup, finishing 19th after spearing off track early.
Click here for full results.
Lowndes may not have gotten the win, but he has taken the Championship lead with 52 points over Courtney.
Click here for full Championship positions.
The V8 Supercars will next be on track at the Winton SuperSprint from May 15-17.
