Decision Time for Davison
On Sunday evening Will Davison was puzzling over his seventh place finish in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, but as early as today he will be putting together the puzzle that is his V8 Supercar driving future beyond this year.
Davison has an offer on the table from his current team Ford Performance Racing to continue, but is also understood to have been made a more lucrative offer by Betty Klimenko’s privateer Erebus Motorsport operation.
These two deals are understood to be the finalists amongst a slew of enquiries that were directed toward the out of contract star this year.
Davison chose to put off contract negotiations leading into the Great Race and imposed a cone of silence. But on Sunday evening the 31-year old told v8supercars.com.au his preference continued to be that he stay with FPR and race a Pepsi Max Falcon FG.
However, the 2009 Bathurst 1000 winner admitted he wasn’t guaranteed to do that.
“Fingers crossed, a good chat with the team during the week and it will be alright,” Davison said. “But it’s a negotiation, it’s a deal. We’ll see.
“It’s a bit confusing but I have to make a call.”
Davison said Saturday’s announcement that Ford was extending its sponsorship of FPR into 2014 would not influence his decision.
“No, I was well aware that was looking good anyway.”
Nor did the impending final negotiations affect his performance at Bathurst.
“No. I did everything I could to get the car right. I drove as hard as I could all day and didn’t make any mistakes.
“But we never quite got the car right all week," he admitted. “And that’s what is required to win this race.”
After qualifying seventh, he and co-driver Steve Owen had threatened the lead group for much of the race, but had been too far back to be a podium chance after the final round of pit stops. Up-front the sister car Mark Winterbottom and Steve Richards raced to FPR’s first ever Bathurst victory.
Davison traced his and Owen’s issues all the way back to the early laps when the first safety car was called after David Russell hit a Kangaroo in the Jack Daniel’s Nissan Altima.
“We pitted really early and should have worked for us but Warren Luff (Red Bull Racing Commodore) backed right off behind the safety car when Steve was in our car.
“They were just cruising round while Canto, Frosty and all these cars were pitting and we should have been five or six seconds ahead of them. But because he (Luff) drove so slowly he hurt himself and us. So we lost three spots.
“That was early on and then we had to change our strategy to avoid queuing. Every time I got in I passed cars but then in Steve’s last stint he was struggling for pace because of car behaviour.
“Then I got in and the car was a real handfull. It felt like a roll-bar had broken or something like that.
“I couldn’t get it right in my head why we were seventh when I came out because I thought we should have been in contention for the podium.”
Davison runs fourth in the Championship with 2232 points, 181 off leader Jamie Whincup on 2423, Craig Lowndes is on 2309 and Mark Winterbottom 2281.
