Will Davison Regains Championship Lead After Win At Phillip Island

Will Davison claims victory at Phillip Island Photo credit: Ford Performance Racing

Will Davison held firm against a late charge from Craig Lowndes to take victory in the second V8 Supercars Championship race at Phillip Island.

After a high speed crash in the opening race, Davison bounced back to regain the championship lead and secure Ford Performance Racing's seventh consecutive victory.

The Tradingpost FPR driver took the chequered flag just 0.56s ahead of polesitter Lowndes, who had stalled at the start dropping to ninth, then began a comeback charge making his way past both TeamVodafone team-mate Jamie Whincup and Team BOC's Jason Bright in the final six laps.

Bright held on for third his best race result at Phillip Island since 2003, while Shane van Gisbergen (SP Tools Racing) Whincup, Mark Winterbottom (Orrcon Steel FPR), Jonathon Webb (Tekno Autosports), David Reynolds (The Bottle-O Racing Team), Lee Holdsworth (IRWIN Racing) and Garth Tander (Holden Racing Team) rounded out the top 10.

“This weekend has been a real test of character and after yesterday's craziness I am so happy to win today,” said Davison.

“I was down on things last night and purposely started today with a clean slate as I couldn't change what happened yesterday. That focus and the sheer hard work of the crew that had to do it tough last night to repair my car makes this a very sweet win. The race wasn't easy what with safety cars, the busy pit stop at the start of the race and the setting sun.

“It is good to be back at the top of the points table and after learning some good lessons in the last couple of events we are really looking forward to going to the next block of races up north.”

The 45-lap race saw four safety car interruptions – the first of which sparked a rush to the pitlane, and saw Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing's Karl Reindler and Lockwood Racing's Fabian Coulthard collide.

Davison left the pits seventh behind Bright, Holdsworth, Alexandre Premat (Fujitsu Racing GRM), David Wall (Wilson Security Racing), Tander and Michael Caruso (Fujitsu Racing GRM) who had all elected to stay out for a one-stop strategy.

Despite another safety car scramble just three laps later after Michael Patrizi (Tekno Autosports)and Reindler made contact at the high-speed turn one, Davison made his way to second by the next round of pitstops, emerging with the lead when Bright made his only stop with 20 laps remaining.

There were a further two restarts following debris-induced Safety Car periods and then with just nine laps to go V.I.P Petfood Racing's Steve Owen tapped Premat into a spin at the exit of turn 4 after contact with David Wall. The impact ripped the oil coolers off Wall's car and sparked a small fire but he was able to park the car safely to the side of the circuit, avoiding a fifth safety car period.

With five laps remaining, it was clear that Lowndes had more pace than his teammate and they swapped positions. Lowndes then passed Bright for second two laps later, with van Gisbergen getting by Whincup to fourth spot after the pair had battled side-by-side exit over the previous couple of laps.

Race one winner, Winterbottom had dropped five spots after being forced to queue behind team-mate Davison. Slowing significantly on the circuit on the way into pitlane in order to allow Davison to extend his lead and prevent double-stacking caused the early pitlane melee and the matter will be investigated post-race.

The 2012 V8 Supercars Championship takes up again at Darwin's Hidden Valley circuit in three weeks' time.

Race 11 result: