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IN THE COCKPIT: Alex Davison, Sandown V8s
There are two races remaining in this year’s championship and I’ll be fighting all the way.
Alex Davison  |  Posted November 21, 2011  
IRWIN Racing's Alex Davison has picked up a bullseye recently that he'd like to get rid of before the V8 Supercars series hits its final round. (IRWIN Racing)
Davison's V8 Blog on SPEED.com


Racing week after week is the norm for NASCAR but it’s pretty rare in V8 Supercars. Last week we were racing at Symmons Plains Raceway, this weekend we are back in Melbourne, home of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, for the Norton 360 Sandown Challenge.

I really love racing at Sandown, it’s a great track with a lot of family history. My Brother Will and I have been coming here since we were very little. We used to watch my dad race here when he was racing Formula 2. My uncle to used to manage the track until only a few years ago and my uncle, Lex Davison – who was a four-time Australian Grand Prix champion - lost his life here when racing in 1965.

I'll go out on a limb and say that Sandown is the oldest race track in Australia, if it isn’t it’s close to it. It’s been around for about 50 years and it’s hardly changed, so it's got a real old school feel to it.

What makes this track different to any other is where it is situated. This track is smack bang in the middle of suburbia. It’s only a 30 minute drive from the centre of Melbourne and is surrounded by homes. When it was built there was probably nothing around here, but as the city has grown, it’s grown around it, so it’s unique.

The circuit layout is a lot of fun. There’s a long front straight and a fantastic section of track over the top of the hill. It’s really quick, you need to take a deep breath and take the brave pills before you head out over there. Top speed is about 260 kilometres an hour, so it’s up there with some of the fastest tracks we go to.

Friday started off really well for IRWIN Racing. The first practice session wasn’t great, we weren’t competitive at all, but we turned it around to be the fifth fastest in the last practice session. We’ve not always been able to recover like that so that was clearly good work from everyone.

We were feeling confident about the two races over the weekend, but Melbourne can through a few curve balls. Friday was extremely hot, but Saturday was wet, very wet. It rained pretty much all day, making it challenging for everyone. We qualified dead last thanks to a faulty batch of tyres. Obviously, we were pretty deflated and frustrated with this because we are not a rear-of-the-grid team.

We made some changes to the IRWIN Ford and immediately it was a million times better than what we had in qualifying, we were competitive, which was a relief.

The hardest aspect of racing in the wet, and I love racing in the rain, is the lack of visibility. Saturday’s race wasn’t a lot of fun. We're doing 260 kilometres an hour down the straight and you couldn't see a metre in front of you. You can’t see the cars, you have no idea where the corner is and you can’t see the braking markers. At the same time you are getting wheel spin in sixth gear, doing 250 (km/h) as you are aquaplaning, so it's not fun at all.

It was great when you got some clean air because you could see a little bit more, particularly if there was no car in front of you. All you can do is try and get your bearings. I tried to find some markers on the walls so that next time I was in the spray I could use them as my braking points. It means looking out the side of the car but it gives you a bit of a reference as to where you are.

To finish in the middle of the field, after starting last in those conditions was pretty good I thought. I tried to race sensibly; I picked off a few spots and watched plenty of cars spiralling off the track.

As for Sunday’s race, well you might recall that James Courtney drilled me from behind in Tasmania last weekend ruining my race, and the same thing happened again.

I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, another driver tried to find an overtaking place that didn’t exist, turned another car around in front of me and I got caught up in it all. There was no damage but it dropped me from just outside the top 10 to 17th. I made up two spots to finish 15th, but ran out of laps to do more.

I’m sick of brain dead bloody idiots crashing into me. That’s the third event in a row that someone has hit us and it’s not been our fault.

The most frustrating thing about all of this is the points that are taken away from us. I’m fighting for ninth in the championship, and could have been eighth by now, but every time someone hits you, you lose positions and lose points. Rather than being comfortable in ninth, I am fighting tooth and nail to hold on to it.

There are two races remaining in this year’s championship and I’ll be fighting all the way.

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.
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