Will Davison has described his satisfaction at achieving a personal goal while fighting a damaged car for much of the final race of the 2014 season at Sydney Olympic Park.
In his last race in Ford factory colours before his high profile switch to the Erebus Mercedes squad, Davison had a mighty battle with his brother and Ford Performance Racing stable-mate Alex Davison on the final lap.
He needed to stay within one position of his team-mate Mark Winterbottom in order to leapfrog him in the championship and claim third.
Davison scotched claims that his sibling had made way for him to finish seventh, one spot behind Winterbottom in the race and therefore finish his time at FPR nailing the team’s pin-up boy in the points, 2799 to 2793.
“I fought and fought and fought particularly that last 20 laps,” Davison told Speedcafe.com.
“I had my hands full and I had never driven so hard in my life.
“It was my brother of all people I had to pass and there was no way the team was going to tell him (the situation). There was no way he knew. I was trying to wave at him ‘get out of the way please’.
“Then I just piled the pressure on him and he (Alex) dropped me for a bit and I clawed my way back to him.
“I was massively aggressive on the turn two-three-four chicane and in six-seven on the last lap and got a bit of a run on him.
“It was a pretty exciting last lap because I had the massive lunge down at Turn 9 which was literally for third in the points. It obviously means something to me.
“Mark is an absolute quality team-mate. He is seriously well rounded.
“It’s a major effort to finish in front of someone with his consistency in the championship.”
Any chance Davison had to challenge at the front vanished with almost 60 of the 74 laps remaining when he damaged his car’s rear suspension.
“The first 12 laps I was settling in,” he recounted.
“Then the Turn 3 kerb, the same kerb that did the damage in the first race, it bent the rear lower control arm again because I couldn’t brake properly.
“I just lost all turn and braking ability. There was 60 laps to go and I was pretty wounded. It was mentally challenging knowing Mark was three ahead.”
“At the end of the day I knew I wasn’t going to win that race today. The damage was done but I did everything I could to stay within one car of Mark.
“There were stages when I didn’t think it was even going to be possible.
“Its races like that sometimes that no-one will ever remember. I had a pretty wounded car and I’ve certainly never driven so hard. There was a lot on the line.”
