Will Davison is hopeful of another outing in the Minardi two-seater at Mount Panorama after a substantial engine failure brought his scheduled running to a premature end.
The Erebus V8 Supercar driver completed just one lap before the Minardi two seater’s V10 Cosworth engine suffered a catastrophic blow up.
The Australian Grand Prix Corporation brought two Minardi two seaters to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 as part of a promotion for the Melbourne race.
Davison and former Minardi driver Zsolt Baumgartner have been chosen to give competition winners a once in a life time experience around the 6.2km circuit.
The car which suffered the failure is due to be fitted with a replacement engine and should make an appearance later in the weekend.
“It was good while it lasted, it all came back to me pretty quick,” Davison, who tested a single-seat Minardi F1 car in 2004, told Speedcafe.com.
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“Its obviously a phenomenal experience driving these cars.
“I accelerated under the bridge on the way to pit entry and its dropped a cylinder and it’s done a substantial amount of damage. It lunched itself pretty bad.
“I was just about to shift up a gear and its just died. I looked in the mirror and I switched if off immediately.”
“There is a chance we might be able to get out again,” he added, having only initially been scheduled to complete the Thursday session before handing over to Baumgartner.
“The guys are going to have to change the engine and they will need to shake it down and do a run in it.”
Aside from his F1 appearance, Davison described the opening day of the Bathurst 1000 as the worst he has ever encountered since his debut at the event in 2004.
The Erebus Motorsport driver ended the day 16th overall, a full 1.8s adrift of the pace-setter David Reynolds.
“It’s been a pretty tough day to be honest,” added Davison.
“There is no hiding behind the fact that we struggled today with the new track surface.
“We made the car nicer to drive but there will be a lot of head scratching tonight but I’m confident the guys will turn it around.
“Nobody knew what this new surface would do and it’s doing some strange things to the cars. It’s the toughest day I’ve ever had at Bathurst.
“Its eerie when you don’t have balance you are doing everything you can to keep it out of the concrete.”
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