Davison takes out Eastern Creek for Jim Beam Racing
March 11th 2008 00:22
Eastern Creek Raceway shone brightly for Ford fans last weekend when Will Davison took out his first ever round win and the first in seven years for his team, the Jim Beam Racing Team.
With three different race winners in three different races, Ford definitely came out as winners with Davison and Mark Winterbottom (FPR) taking the top two positions on the podium. The 2007 championship winner Garth Tander was the winner of race one and the only Holden driver to stand on the dais on Sunday afternoon, taking out third place overall.
Jim Beam Racing has not won a round since 2001 and emotions ran high when Davison crossed the finishing line in race three with enough points to keep Winterbottom off the top spot. Sixth in qualifying and some mature racing in the first two races overcame a weaker performance in race three to hand a speechless and excited Davison his first ever round win in three years of V8 Supercar competition.
“It feels absolutely incredible, any day I’m sitting in a press conference is generally a good day so to actually be here is unbelievable,” said Davison. “It’s just full credit to the whole team and I can’t thank everyone enough.
“To have ticked off a race win and now a round win certainly is incredible and I think it’s going to do wonders for everyone in the team.
“Everyone’s got some big goals they want to reach and it’s probably going to take some time before we’re probably doing this consistently but hopefully now we can get a couple more podiums throughout the year.”
“Words can’t describe not only how I feel personally but just for the whole tam,” said Davison. “This is my third year now [in V8 Supercars] and we’re a very, very close team and we’re climbing up and up. I knew a win wasn’t far away and to get it today was a bit unexpected. I feel a bit emotional actually.”
Winterbottom had nothing but thanks for his team after a weak start to the weekend saw him just squeeze into the top ten in race one. “Yesterday after qualifying we almost booked an earlier flight home for today because you didn’t expect to be here but great job by the guys,” he said.
“Fighting back is an incredible achievement, we said ‘let’s do a lot of work and get the cars quicker’ and we did. To finish 10th, then second, and then first, that’s a pretty good achievement.”
Yesterday FPR fans had their doubts but our race pace is strong and the track’s coming to us and we’re getting better. We had a cracker start today, a great pit stop where we come out in second and sat there [for the rest of the race]. It will make the last race more interesting now and we can have a good fight and see if we can get on the podium.”
It was totally different for Toll HRT with Tander qualifying fastest and sharing the front row of the grid in race one with team mate Mark Skaife. When he took out race one it seemed like the weekend would once again belong to HRT, but it wasn’t to be. And when he struggled at the start of race two, it was a hard fought battle for the lanky Western Australian to fight his way into the top three.
“We made a really good pit stop in that last race, we jumped a few guys there and the car had plenty of good speed,” Tander said. “Obviously Richo [Steven Richards] had a shunt but we would have preferred if there was no safety car because I was catching Rick [Kelly] and had Whincup under control. Whether we would have got around Rick I don’t know but a great fight back by our guys.”
Round two final results – top 10
1 Will Davison (Jim Beam Racing) 260
2 Mark Winterbottom (FPR) 244
3 Garth Tander (Toll HRT) 242
4 Rick Kelly (HSV Dealer Team) 240
5 Jamie Whincup (Team Vodafone) 240
6 Craig Lowndes (Team Vodafone) 210
7 Russel Ingall (Supercheap Auto Racing) 192
8 Mark Skaife (Toll HRT) 184
9 Lee Holdsworth (Valvoline Cummins / Garry Rogers Motorsport) 168
10 Greg Murphy (Tasman Motorsport) 156
Will Davison after his win at Eastern Creek
With three different race winners in three different races, Ford definitely came out as winners with Davison and Mark Winterbottom (FPR) taking the top two positions on the podium. The 2007 championship winner Garth Tander was the winner of race one and the only Holden driver to stand on the dais on Sunday afternoon, taking out third place overall.
Jim Beam Racing has not won a round since 2001 and emotions ran high when Davison crossed the finishing line in race three with enough points to keep Winterbottom off the top spot. Sixth in qualifying and some mature racing in the first two races overcame a weaker performance in race three to hand a speechless and excited Davison his first ever round win in three years of V8 Supercar competition.
“It feels absolutely incredible, any day I’m sitting in a press conference is generally a good day so to actually be here is unbelievable,” said Davison. “It’s just full credit to the whole team and I can’t thank everyone enough.
“To have ticked off a race win and now a round win certainly is incredible and I think it’s going to do wonders for everyone in the team.
“Everyone’s got some big goals they want to reach and it’s probably going to take some time before we’re probably doing this consistently but hopefully now we can get a couple more podiums throughout the year.”
“Words can’t describe not only how I feel personally but just for the whole tam,” said Davison. “This is my third year now [in V8 Supercars] and we’re a very, very close team and we’re climbing up and up. I knew a win wasn’t far away and to get it today was a bit unexpected. I feel a bit emotional actually.”
Winterbottom had nothing but thanks for his team after a weak start to the weekend saw him just squeeze into the top ten in race one. “Yesterday after qualifying we almost booked an earlier flight home for today because you didn’t expect to be here but great job by the guys,” he said.
“Fighting back is an incredible achievement, we said ‘let’s do a lot of work and get the cars quicker’ and we did. To finish 10th, then second, and then first, that’s a pretty good achievement.”
Yesterday FPR fans had their doubts but our race pace is strong and the track’s coming to us and we’re getting better. We had a cracker start today, a great pit stop where we come out in second and sat there [for the rest of the race]. It will make the last race more interesting now and we can have a good fight and see if we can get on the podium.”
It was totally different for Toll HRT with Tander qualifying fastest and sharing the front row of the grid in race one with team mate Mark Skaife. When he took out race one it seemed like the weekend would once again belong to HRT, but it wasn’t to be. And when he struggled at the start of race two, it was a hard fought battle for the lanky Western Australian to fight his way into the top three.
“We made a really good pit stop in that last race, we jumped a few guys there and the car had plenty of good speed,” Tander said. “Obviously Richo [Steven Richards] had a shunt but we would have preferred if there was no safety car because I was catching Rick [Kelly] and had Whincup under control. Whether we would have got around Rick I don’t know but a great fight back by our guys.”
Round two final results – top 10
1 Will Davison (Jim Beam Racing) 260
2 Mark Winterbottom (FPR) 244
3 Garth Tander (Toll HRT) 242
4 Rick Kelly (HSV Dealer Team) 240
5 Jamie Whincup (Team Vodafone) 240
6 Craig Lowndes (Team Vodafone) 210
7 Russel Ingall (Supercheap Auto Racing) 192
8 Mark Skaife (Toll HRT) 184
9 Lee Holdsworth (Valvoline Cummins / Garry Rogers Motorsport) 168
10 Greg Murphy (Tasman Motorsport) 156
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