SHATTERING END TO DAVISON’S V8 SEASON

Alex Davison started the final event of the V8 Supercars season fighting for a place in the series top 10, instead he had to contend with a rare DNF and 11th in the final standings.

Davison was an early retiree in today’s last race of the season after being hit by a wayward Dean Fiore on lap 30 or the 74 lap race.

The damaged sustained, a broken watts link and diff housing, was too great to be fixed and saw Davison exit the car, ending his season prematurely.

A shattered Davison watched the final 34 laps from the IRWIN Racing garage knowing that a fast finishing Tim Slade and James Courtney would leap frog him in the championship, relegating the Queensland based driver to 11th in the championship.

Having being placed in the top nine for the entire season, dropping out of the 10 was a bitter pill to swallow for Davison who was making his final appearance for the IRWIN Tools backed team.

What IRWIN Racing’s Alex Davison had to say:

“Steve Owen and Todd Kelly were crashing into each other and I got half caught up in this. I didn’t get a good run out of turn seven because of this and just moved over to cover my line and Dean Fiore hit me from behind and spat me into the fence. That damaged the car too much to repair. To say I’m shattered is an absolute understatement.”

What IRWIN Racing’s engineer Dan Kroehn had to say:

“It was probably more than a racing incident. We got into a bit of a tangle with (Dean) Fiore out of turn seven, Alex was in front but Dean didn’t lift and caught his rear quarter and spat him into the wall. Alex caught the spin but slapped into the wall which broke the Watts Link and the Diff Housing. So it was a DNF (Did Not Finish) for us, which is so disappointing given the form we’ve shown this year. To drop out of the top 10 in the championship is equally disappointing.”

FINAL 2011 V8 SUPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

1. #88 Jamie Whincup 3168 points
2. #888 Craig Lowndes 3133
3. #9 Mark Winterbottom 2710
4. #5 Shane van Gisbergen 2672
5. #2 Garth Tander 2574
6. #6 Rick Kelly 2358
7. #15 Will Davison 2345
8. #33 Lee Holdsworth 1920
9. #47 Tim Slade 1904
10. #1 James Courtney 1869
11. #4 Alex Davison 1850

V8 SUPERCARS: SYDNEY TELSTRA 500 RACE 28 RESULTS

1. #5 Winterbottom 74 Laps
2. #888 Lowndes
3. #9 van Gisbergen
4. #19 Webb
5. #39 Ingall
6. #34 Caruso
7. #1 Courtney
8. #88 Whincup
9. #8 Bright
10. #47 Slade
DNF. #4 A. Davison 30 laps

V8 SUPERCARS: SYDNEY TELSTRA 500 RACE 28 QUALIFYING RESULTS

1. #6 W. Davison 1:27.4562
2. #88 Whincup 1:27.6257
3. #5 Winterbottom 1:27.6985
4. #888 Lowndes 1:27.9087
5. #55 Dumbrell 1:27.9312
6. #1 Courtney 1:27.9995
7. #9 van Gisbergen 1:28.0197
8. #19 Webb 1:28.1328
9. #3 D’Alberto 1:28.1655
10. #33 Holdsworth 1:28.1786
17. #4 A. Davison 1.28.5542