Alex Davison in the top ten again

Alex Davison scored his fourth Top 10 Bathurst 1000 finish from five starts today, after finishing 10th with Fabian Coulthard for Glenfords Racing.
While the result continues Davison’s impressive record at Mount Panorama, it was a case of what might have been, with fuel pickup problems costing the team a probable Top Five finish.

The Glenfords duo ran impressively throughout the race, and were set for a strong finish before their fuel strategy in the final two stints of the race was hampered.

At the end of his final stint, Davison pitted from third place on Lap 125, just outside the window to complete the race on one more tank of fuel.

Coulthard pitted in the following Safety Car period to take on more fuel, relinquishing track position as various pit strategies played out.

He recovered to sit seventh in the dying laps, before being forced to pit at the start of the final lap for a top up.

“It’s not the result we deserved, unfortunately,” Davison said.

“We had a problem with the fuel pickup system; it wasn’t picking up the last couple of laps in the tank. My first stint ended early when we got a puncture, so that and having to pit a couple of laps early each time took us out of the window to do the race on five stops.

“We were having some problems with the reserve tank as well, so Fabian had to pit twice during his stint at the end. The car was good and we had strong pace, we were up there and on for a legitimate Top Five result.”

In his first Australian race meeting of the year, Davison was at home straight away in the Glenfords Falcon, setting the third-fastest time in the opening practice session.

After ending his other practice session in seventh place and lapping strongly in the dual-driver sessions, Davison impressed during in the race and was one of the quickest non-fulltime V8 Supercar drivers in the field.

Throughout each stint, Davison made inroads to run as high as third, setting comparable laptimes with the cars around him.

“I’m really happy with my personal performance,” he said. “Not driving these cars all of the time, it’s a fine line when you’re pushing hard between getting a lap time and ending up in the wall.

“Having only done one test day and not doing Phillip Island, I was on Fabian’s pace straight away and setting competitive times. Everything was positive, it was good working Fabian and the PCR crew.”

Over the weekend, Australia became the ninth country Davison has raced in, Bathurst his 13th circuit and V8 Supercars the sixth championship in which he has made a start.

“It’s been good racing at home,” Davison said. Getting back to Australia and racing at Bathurst is something I’ve been looking forward to for a while.

“Unfortunately the end result wasn’t quite what it could’ve been, but it’s been a great weekend.”

Davison will return to Europe on Tuesday to contest the final round of the Italian GT Championship at Vallelunga next weekend.