Dick Johnson Racing has arrived at the ITM Taupo Super400 in 10th position out of 12 in the teams’ championship and winless since last July’s NTI Townsville 400.
“It’s been our best probably rollout session of the year, which is good,” said Davison.
“We need every little bit of positivity at the moment, just to keep the spirits up.
“It’s been a tough time for the team but we know what we’re all capable of so it’s just [a matter of] keeping together, sticking together.
“You get asked the same question every day, it’s like getting kicked when you’re down at a team like ours, but that’s normal.
“So, we just keep knuckling down, keep trying to unlock the magic in this car.”
The #17 Mustang pilot was circumspect, though, in assessing how he fared in the weekend’s sole, 90-minute practice session on what is a brand-new track to the Repco Supercars Championship.
“Whether we’ve done that today, I don’t know,” continued Davison.
“Obviously, we’re at a very, very different style of circuit to really anywhere.
“We had a feeling we have a pretty good car on a circuit like this and it seems like we’re okay today.
“I’m not too confident where we’re at but, obviously, it’s been a good session for both of us, and now we’ve got a heap of stuff to look through because it was a spinout.
“Ninety minutes, you’re just trying to adjust your driving, you’re throwing changes at the car, and you’re not really getting a true read because the grip changes so much, run-to-run, so it’s quite confusing.
“But, yeah, I enjoyed the sessions. It was cool, really cool to learn a new circuit, try and get your head round it. I love that challenge.”
Davison and De Pasquale were among several drivers to sample Taupo in a variety of machinery, Toyota 86s in their case, between this weekend’s event and last month’s at Albert Park.
The two-time Bathurst 1000 winner believes the main benefit was in helping to establish an initial set-up rather than learning the track as a driver.
“I went out there [in practice], I’m like, ‘Okay, this car’s a bit bigger than the 86,” laughed Davison.
“Yeah, you get reference points but I think it was my out lap when I quickly realised that, certainly, manhandling one of the Supercars was a very different story to a little 86.
“It was helpful, but I think it was more that you’d probably be at a disadvantage for about 10 minutes of that session if we didn’t come over, because every driver did.
“But, probably the knowledge we got to be able to just identify some of the key things we spoke about, with the surfaces and whatnot, back to your team, to give them the best heads-up to roll out something reasonable is probably where the trip was beneficial.”
Qualifying for Race 7 of the season, the first of the weekend, starts tomorrow at 10:20 local time/08:20 AEST, with a Top 10 Shootout to follow later in the day.
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