Will Davison was left to lament a missed opportunity at the Sandown 500 after a pre-race strategy agreement within Ford Performance Racing fell down in the heat of battle.
Davison’s co-driver Steve Owen fell from third to 22nd at the second round of pitstops when he was forced to stack behind the sister Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards entry.
Richards had been off-sequence with the pitstop cycle after a poor start triggered a decision to get his first compulsory stop out of the way on the opening lap.
Owen was subsequently held up by Richards throughout his second stint, with the two cars then heading to the pits nose-to-tail when a Safety Car was called on Lap 35.
Citing a pre-race agreement within the team that such a situation would see the lead car continue in order to leave the pitbox free for the one that was genuinely racing for the lead, Davison was left fuming.
“We knew that it was a potential scenario, we had discussed all of these scenarios, but we had also discussed that if a car was ahead in position, but effectively wasn’t in the same race we wouldn’t have to queue behind that car,” reflected Davison post-race.
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“It’s very unfortunate that the Safety Car came with that DJR car came at that exact moment, we were praying that we could get another three laps without a safety car because he (Richards) effectively hadn’t put any fuel in the car yet at that stage and we pretty much had a full tank.
“It was a very unfortunate set of circumstances probably both engineer’s worst nightmare that it fell at that moment, but I suppose it’s at that moment that you stick to an agreement.”
“We’d had this conversation in the debrief about the different strategies and the way it would turn out,” added Owen, who went on to liken the situation to Sebastian Vettel ignoring team orders in the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix.
“It’s a bit like the old ‘multi21’; what was discussed in the debrief didn’t exactly happen once everyone got their helmet on.
“I could have probably dived down the inside and taken second and third out in the championship, but it’s not really my style to do that,” he added of his second stint stuck behind Richards.
“Obviously it was the rough end of the pineapple for us.”
The pair were able to recover to third ahead of the final stint, by which time Davison had to deal with a variety of other dramas.
The front-end of the #6 Pepsi Max Falcon had sustained damage as Owen fought his way back through from the early set back; resulting in a lack of straightline speed.
“I was obviously trying to save a lot of fuel, fight off (eventual fourth place finisher) Lee Holdsworth and we were down in a straightline, so I had my hands full trying to hold on to third position,” he said of the closing stages.
“The noises coming out of it weren’t pretty at all and I’ve got a pretty ripped bicep at the moment because the gearshifts in the last 30 laps were pretty violent.
“I knew something was going on but I didn’t want to ask to be honest. I just had to grin and bare it and bring it home.”
Davison has fallen from third to fourth in the points standings as a result of the Sandown event, with second-place finisher Craig Lowndes leap-frogging both Davison and Winterbottom.
