IN THE COCKPIT: Alex Davison, Phillip Island

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IN THE COCKPIT: Alex Davison, Phillip Island

The V8 Supercars season of endurance has started. The first was at Phillip Island last weekend and I had David Brabham joining me.

Alex Davison | Posted September 22, 2011

The picturesque Phillip Island produces some amazingly good and incredibly fast racing. (IRWIN Racing)

The V8 Supercars season of endurance has started. There are two endurance races each year where every team needs to bring in a co-driver. The first was at Phillip Island last weekend and for a second consecutive year I had David Brabham join me.

David is one of the world’s great drivers; he has raced Formula One, won the Le Mans 24-hour race and is a two-time American Le Mans Series champion. The name Brabham is one of the most famous names in world motor sport. Apart from David, there is his brother Geoff who is a member in the prestigious Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and of course their dad Sir Jack Brabham – a triple Formula One world champion.

David arrived in Australia last Tuesday having raced in the GT1 World Championship in China. IRWIN Racing was rapt to have David with us because he does a bloody good job .He's probably under-appreciated because every other co-driver in the V8 grid has enjoyed plenty of time in the cars at other race meets and at test days during the year. Many of them also race in the second tier V8 Supercars development series. David, well he rocks up, gets in the car and is straight on the pace, but people only see us down the time sheets so he doesn’t get the credit for what he does.

Davison was joined once again by SPEED.com columnist David Brabham for the first V8 endurance race of the year. (IRWIN Racing)

Phillip Island circuit is one of the most picturesque tracks in the world. There are ocean views, it's undulating, there is green grass everywhere and on a sunny day it looks beautiful. As far as the circuit goes, it’s really fast and flowing and it has a bit of everything, including a nice long main straight, some tight corners and some nice flowing lines. It is also quite a daunting circuit, you won’t have a small off or a small crash at Phillip Island, if you are going to go off it will be pretty exciting due to the speeds that you get up to – up to 280 kilometres an hour (174m/h) down the main straight.

At PI (Phillip Island) our race weekend is structured differently to other rounds. Normally you do practice, qualifying then a race; last weekend we had practice on Friday, the main race on Sunday, but Saturday had qualifying races.

Because each car had two drivers, each driver got their own qualifying session which determined the starting position in their own qualifying race. The points earned by both drivers in the qualifying races were joined and this determined the start position in the main race for each car – simple right? It’s clearly designed to enhance the day for the fans at the track and for television.

What I like is that it gives more track time to the co-drivers and it gives them a chance to enjoy the limelight in their own race. What I don’t like is that in a sprint race a lot can go wrong. The races were clean fortunately, but a small mistake can cause a lot of damage ahead of a very important race.

A schedule like this also puts a lot of pressure on the team, even if the sessions are incident free. On Saturday we had six sessions; the teams were at the track at 7am, on-track at 9.10am, then the last race finished at 5.15pm. By the time everything is prepped in readiness for Sunday, the guys have done a 15/16 hour day. Whatever you do for a dollar, that’s a long day!

As for IRWIN Racing, the weekend was a forgettable one. We started at the rear of the grid and finished 22nd. This about tells the story.

We had very big handling problems with the IRWIN Ford all weekend, nothing made sense and we struggled to make improvements. The best car we had all weekend was in the race, but we still struggled for handling. For a few laps, while the tyres were fresh, the car was alright, but as soon as I got into traffic, into the dirty air where you lose some of your aerodynamic down force, the car would understeer or push. This made looking after the tyres difficult.

I made a fantastic start, I passed nine cars on the opening lap, so it was a pity I was at the back of the grid. Soon after another car ran into the back of me, which was totally unnecessary and very disappointing. I was basically at the rear of the grid again and we were unable to recover.

The next race is the Bathurst 1000; the biggest, most important event of the season. It’s like the Super Bowl and the Indy 500 all rolled into one.

It's a very famous race with lots of history and is one of Australia’s major sporting events. Even people that have no interest in motor sport tune in to watch ‘the Great Race’.

Bathurst has an atmosphere, a feeling that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You feel it as you arrive in town and see the big Mt Panorama signage on the side of the mountain.

Before the race everyone is wound up, everyone is nervous and there is tension in the air. Bathurst is unique and I can’t wait to get there.

Till next time,

Alex Davison

Alex Davison is a third-generation racing driver having followed on from his father Richard Davison, an Australian F2 champion, and his late grandfather Lex Davison, a four-time Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix winner. Alex has raced Porsches internationally and has spent the last two seasons racing his IRWIN Tools Ford Falcon in the V8 Supercars Championship for Stone Brothers Racing, one of the biggest teams in the V8 pit lane.

Learn more about Alex and the IRWIN team at www.irwinracing.com.au.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Davison

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