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V8 Supercars
IN THE COCKPIT: Alex Davison, Tasmania V8s
I'd be happy to get through two races in a row without an imbecile running into the back of my car.
Alex Davison  |  Posted November 15, 2011  
Alex Davison has been a steady runner inside the top 10 when body contact hasn't been an issue. (IRWIN Racing)
Davison's V8 Blog on SPEED.com

Symmons Plains Raceway is in Tasmania. It’s Australia’s smallest state and is affectionately called ‘the Apple Isle’.

Tasmania is small in terms of size and population; it’s a 50 minute flight from Melbourne or an over-night boat trip across Bass Straight.

We race in Tasmania each year and the locals love it, it’s the biggest attended event in the state. We get between 55,000 and 65,000 people coming over the three days.

I think Symmons Plains Raceway is the smallest race track in the world! OK I’m joking, but it’s the only track that I’ve raced on where a lap takes well under a minute. In qualifying you’re completing a lap in 51 seconds so a 200 kilometre race is like running a marathon around your backyard. You keep getting back to the same point and you’re nearly getting dizzy.

While it’s only 2.4 kilometres in length, it is by no means a simple track. It’s very tricky to get each corner just right. Last weekend we saw the whole field separated by seven-10ths of a second and from where I qualified in 13th there was less than two-10ths between pole and me, which is nothing.

Symmons Plains is quite a technical circuit. It provides fans with pretty good racing and there are a couple of passing spots to keep everyone interested.

The standout feature is the mega tight hairpin. Your steering wheel is almost on full lock to get around it. You have to drop to first gear and you are approaching the corner doing about 250 kilometres an hour so you have to reduce your speed to about 60, which is pretty slow.

At Symmons you need to achieve a good car set up and the braking is very important there. I think everyone struggles with brake fade during the races due to the two big stops at turns four (the hairpin) and seven (another hard left hander), so the brakes don’t get a chance to recover.

The brake pressure is massive. We measure how hard you press the brake pedals through the hydraulic pressure in the brake system. We are seeing upwards of 1400psi, which if you sit in the race car and you can get the brake pressure up on the dash display, most people wouldn’t be able to physically press the brake that hard. I’m obviously used to it, but the adrenaline helps as you have yourself brushing up to the front windscreen once you’re on the binders... It’s hard work though and my foot is well worn out after the race.

The weekend for IRWIN Racing was one of highs and lows. On Saturday we qualified seventh and finished sixth. It was a great result and one we were pretty satisfied with.

At the recent Bathurst and Gold Coast events we had good speed, but things happened that prevented us from bringing home the points. In Tasmania we were fast in practice straight out of the truck and improved the IRWIN Ford on Saturday.

We had a pretty good clean race. Luckily we got into a bit of a rhythm in both stints. I managed to drop the guys behind me, which meant I didn't have to worry about them. I hung on to the lead group as well, a few times we got right up close to them but we didn't quite have the pace to battle with them . At the end I got right on to them when they were battling, but I was struggling with a fair bit of brake fade, so I couldn’t do much about trying to overtake them.

As for Sunday, we only qualified 13th because the team only put three of the soft ‘green’ tyres on the car in that last run. So we had three greens and a used tyre. When there are only two-tenths between 13th and pole you need everything to be perfect, so it cost us time. It was a long race and I was confident that I could move forward but we were lacking the pace to move us forward through the pack.

I'd caught up to the group in front of me, we were sitting 13th and probably could have passed one more car, which would have been a good result as far as the championship was concerned, but then James Courtney completely drilled me from behind and the damage to the back of the car caused the tyres to delaminate.

I'd be happy to get through two races in a row without an imbecile running into the back of my car; I'm due a bit of luck, but it wasn’t to be.

We now head to the penultimate round of the year, next weekend at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne. A good result could see us improve to eighth in the championship, which would be welcome.

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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