Will Davison believes he is assured his Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 victory is safe despite Triple Eight’s ongoing appeal following a conversation with team boss Roland Dane.
With the date for the hearing in Melbourne yet to be set, Davison says Dane has been in phone contact following the race where the Red Bull sqaud’s power broker said, ‘changing the race result is the last thing he wants to do’.
The Tekno Autosports driver also hinted that Triple Eight remains set on minimising Whincup’s penalty after the six-time champion lost 156 championship points as a result of the penalty.
The result of The Great Race remains provisional after Red Bull Racing Australia lodged an appeal against a 15-second penalty that was imposed on the race leading #88 of Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell following contact with Scott McLaughlin on lap 150.
Whincup went on to take the chequered flag although Davison and co-driver Jonathon Webb, driving a Triple Eight built chassis, were awarded victory following the post race time penalty.
“He (Dane) said; ‘the last thing he wanted to do was to change our result.’,” Davison told Speedcafe.com.
“I understand what they (Triple Eight) are doing to get Jamie’s penalty changed slightly but there is no way we will lose the lead.
“We have a great relationship with Roland (Dane). It is an awkward situation but it is not an incident involving us so it is his decision.
“He (Roland) said he didn’t want any shine to be taken off our victory and was sorry if that was the case.
“He also said that if he wanted anyone to win other than Triple Eight then it would be us. He is doing it (lodging an appeal) for his drivers (Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell) as he would for any of his drivers, including myself if I was driving for him.
“There is a chance that any team can protest anything to the stewards. It (a change to our result) wouldn’t happen because of what I’ve just suggested.
“You can’t tell someone that they’re not in a race with you and then give them a result back because I would have attacked Jamie (Whincup) differently on the restart.
“When people say that I didn’t even lead a lap, I can assure you that it was so intense in those last laps that I genuinely forgot that Jamie existed. In my head I led the last eight laps.”
Still soaking up his second Bathurst 1000 triumph, Davison admits his race hopes almost went up in smoke after narrowly avoiding Garth Tander in the ensuing melee following Whincup’s contact with McLaughlin exiting The Chase.
Tander’s Holden Racing Team Commodore was facing the oncoming traffic in the middle to the road, forcing the Gold-Coast based driver to take instantaneous evasive action.
“I was a split second away from a huge impact,” Davison recounted.
“It was closer than I thought it was going to be and it was a pretty hairy moment.
“You don’t have time to be worried about it, you just have to back your judgement and hope your reflexes don’t let you down.”
Meanwhile, the appeal has thrown a spotlight on regulations regarding driving infringements with Triple Eight claiming that teams were told prior to the race that grade 1 driving misdemeanours would be penalised by a 10 point penalty.
Davison believes drivers are clear on what is acceptable behaviour on track, but admits there are always grey areas and inconsistencies which Supercars can continue to improve.
“To be fair, no drivers have been speaking up so it (the rules) has been made pretty clear,” said Davison.
“There has been plenty of vision to explain the different levels of driving infringements. People are always going to feel hard done by and if we want any changes it is up to us as drivers to speak up.
“I think it has been made clearer what we can and cannot do but there are always grey elements.
“I think it is something as a category we must continue to strive and do better and we are. It is always going be a hot topic.”
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