Davison puts horror smash behind him
HE broke his back last year at Symmons Plains but Bathurst champion Will Davison says it has made him stronger than ever.
The 35-year-old hotshot from Melbourne came off second-best in an unprecedented rain-sodden pileup at 200km/h — the biggest crash in Supercars history.
The force of the impact was eye-watering, in fact backbreaking, for the 2016 King of the Mountain.
Returning to the track yesterday to prepare for Round 3 of the Australian Supercars championship this weekend brought the memories flooding back.
“The official report said the impact was 47 Gs,” Davison said.
“It was pretty painful and pretty scary.”
He spent two nights in the Launceston General Hospital but 23Red Racing’s man of steel was not grounded for long.
“Two weeks later I raced at Phillip Island — I limped into the car,” Davison said.
“For a couple of months there was a bit of recovery needed — I probably bounced back from it fitter than ever.
“My rehab and strengthening of that part of my back made me take my fitness to a whole new level.
“My main memory is being pretty out of it in Launceston hospital,” he said.
“It’s bittersweet memories of Tassie — I still love the event but I was incredibly disappointed in not being able to race.
“I love the track and we were really competitive up to that point.
“It looked like were on for a strong result like we had in 2016. “It was just one of those hits. “I don’t hold anything against Tassie — no bad feelings coming back here.”
A MISTAKE-riddled final race and missing his maiden Supercars championship crown in the last event of last year has given New Zealander Scott McLachlan more drive than ever as the series hits Tasmania this weekend.
McLachlan enters Round 3 of the championship at Symmons Plains third in the standings on 425 points, trailing Shane van Gisbergen (488) and David Reynolds (437).
The Shell V-Power Racing driver said squandering a 78point series lead and pole pos- ition with three penalties during the 250km Newcastle race, which handed Jamie Whincup a record seventh title, still hurt.
“But that has given me incredible motivation,” McLachlan said.
“It hurt but I’ve tried to turn as much as I can into a positive and I feel like the team is doing awesome work and making it happen.
“It has given me more determination than I’ve ever had to try to get the job done. I’ll give it my best shot, that’s for sure.”
Winning a V8 champion- ship title was a long-term personal goal.
“It would be the realisation of a dream that I’ve had since I was a kid,” he said.
“It’s unfinished business for me this year after what happened last year.
“We got the team championship but the driver’s championship just slipped out of our hands.
“To get that [driver’s championship] across the line would be fantastic.”
McLachlan and teammate Fabian Coulthard claimed a historic one-two for their team at Symmons Plains last year.
He described the start to the 2018 season as “up and down”.
“We’ve had some results that have gone our way and we’ve had some decent runs, but we’ve also missed out on a couple of good opportunities,” McLachlan said.
“All in all, we’ve been consistent as a team and it has been a pretty solid start.
“The problem was we made too many mistakes last year and that really hurt us in the end.
“We could have really taken control of the championship.
“For us it’s important to knuckle down and get the results we can when they’re in the palms of our hands and make sure they count and add up at the end of the year.”
McLachlan has always been a front runner in Tasmania.
“The track is simple on paper but it’s very technical,” he said.
“I’ve always enjoyed the nature of the track — I’ve always loved Tasmania because it’s very similar to my home country.
“I like racing there and I love going back there and you get the true diehard fans there too, which makes the experience very cool.”