By Dan McCarthy
Release date: July 19, 2021
Dick Johnson Racing driver Will Davison believes the safety car cost him a real chance at yesterday’s Townsville race win.
In the last race, Will Davison pitted early to undercut both Shane van Gisbergen and Cameron Waters.
It would have paid off at a fast pace after the pit stop, but the safety car was called when Macauley Jones fell out of the race.
The safety car not only took the lead that Davison would have had, but the safety car picked him up instead of the leading Waters, who completed another lap before pitting under the safety car.
This mix-up cost Davison several seconds and then the lead, but he is confident that the safety car cost him the win.
“We should have been way ahead with the undercut, it (would have) worked really well,” said Davison after the race.
“I drove behind the safety car, the green lights weren’t on, I was down in first and second gear, Shane and I lost a good six seven seconds, which was disappointing, but that’s how it works.
“There haven’t been any safety cars lately, so we had a small crack in one race, we started early and took a little punt.
“I think it could have worked out well because as we saw at the end my tires were much older, but we still had good pace.
“It was a fight at times (the last two weekends in Townsville) and giving them a trophy as a thank you for their hard work.
“But the race could certainly have gone differently without the safety car, so I’m a bit disappointed.”
While it’s been a tough pair of events for the Dick Johnson Racing Team, especially on Davison’s side of the pits – he only scored the only podium – he draws positives from what the team has learned.
“It was a real fight,” he said. “I mean, we didn’t really slip from the second row in qualifying, we have a good one-lap speed, but the races were certainly challenging.
“It was frustrating, but I have to thank them (the team) because we never made any more changes to either car for two weekends.
“In a way it was good, we learned a lot, we certainly have some weaknesses and we have a lot of strengths in our package, it’s just a matter of trying to understand that.”
For more current Supercars news, see the latest issue of Auto Action. Also follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for the latest updates between editions.
Current stories
array (0 => WP_Term :: __ set_state (array (‘term_id’ => 3, ‘name’ => ‘Homepage’, ‘slug’ => ‘homepage’, ‘term_group’ => 0, ‘term_taxonomy_id’ => 3 , ‘taxonomy’ => ‘category’, ‘description’ => ”, ‘parent’ => 0, ‘count’ => 46, ‘filter’ => ‘raw’, ‘cat_ID’ => 3, ‘category_count ‘=> 46,’ category_description ‘=>’ ‘,’ cat_name ‘=>’ Homepage ‘,’ category_nicename ‘=>’ homepage ‘,’ category_parent ‘=> 0,)), 1 => WP_Term :: __ set_state (array (‘term_id’ => 11, ‘name’ => ‘Latest News’,’ slug ‘=>’ latest-news’, ‘term_group’ => 0, ‘term_taxonomy_id’ => 11, ‘taxonomy’ => ‘category ‘,’ description ‘=>’ ‘,’ parent ‘=> 0,’ count ‘=> 6452,’ filter ‘=>’ raw ‘,’ cat_ID ‘=> 11,’ category_count ‘=> 6452,’ category_description ‘ => ”, ‘cat_name’ => ‘Latest News’, ‘category_nicename’ => ‘latest-news’, ‘category_parent’ => 0,)), 2 => WP_Term :: __ set_state (array (‘term_id’ = > 38, ‘name’ => ‘Supercars’,’ slug ‘=>’ Supercars’, ‘term_group’ => 0, ‘term_taxonomy_id’ => 38, ‘taxonomy’ => ‘category’, ‘description’ => ‘ ‘,’ pa rent ‘=> 659,’ count ‘=> 2190,’ filter ‘=>’ raw ‘,’ cat_ID ‘=> 38,’ category_count ‘=> 2190,’ category_description ‘=>’ ‘,’ cat_name ‘=>’ Super sports car ‘,’ category_nicename ‘=>’ Super sports car ‘,’ category_parent ‘=> 659,)),)
