Will Davison has started the weekend at his home test track in the best possible fashion, topping the first practice session at the Coates Hire Ipswich 400.
Davison found the podium in his Erebus Mercedes at the last event in Townsville, and is quietly confident of continuing that form after positive results at the team’s test between the rounds.
Reasonably happy with car pace and balance after the 20-minute run, Davison said the challenge was staying on top of changing conditions at QR.
“It was good to carry over from the test – the track’s a little bit different, not drastically, but certainly it’s a little bit slippery,” Davison told v8supercars.com.au.
“We’ve remained with a good balance – a chunk less rear grip than the test day – but a general decent balance, so we’ve kicked off where we thought we were.
“We didn’t know where anyone else was, but we knew we were pretty quick at the end of the test last week.
“Obviously people will catch up over the course of the day, but our focus for the weekend is to stay in tune with the conditions, that’s what this track is all about, making sure your car is right with the changing conditions during the day.
“We’re ok at the moment, but the test is keeping up with the conditions.”
Trading times with former teammate Mark Winterbottom later in the session, Davison had a chuckle about matching times with the Pepsi Max Ford, after standing on the podium with Winterbottom at this event last year.
“We want to keep this up. We were quickest in Townsville with Lee (Holdsworth, teammate) in practice, we didn’t drop far away, we proved that wasn’t a fluke there – but we want to make sure we’re up there come race time.
“It’s going to be a long, interesting weekend – but certainly feeling good.”
In the final stages of the session, Team BOC’s Jason Bright’s Holden Commdore split the former teammates, just 0.0013sec behind Davison’s 1min10.0802 lap around the 3.12km Queensland Raceway.
Winterbottom completed the top three, with Chaz Mostert (who won his breathrough race here last year with Dick Johnson Racing), Shane van Gisbergen, Holdsworth, Scott Pye, Michael Caruso’s Nissan, Davison Reynolds and Fabian Coulthard top 10.
The top 10 were separated by just 0.28 seconds.
The first Volvo was Scott McLaughlin in 11, with Jamie Whincup 12, Garth Tander 13, James Courtney 19 and Craig Lowndes back in the order in 24th.
Click here for full session results.
The second practice session will commence at 1.15pm AEST at Queensland Raceway.
