BATHURST 2012: Davison wins thrilling Top 10 Shootout

Davison, fourth quickest in Friday’s qualifying session, was the seventh driver on track and set a target time of 2:08.0693sec to be quickest to that point. He then had to control his nerves while Mark Winterbottom, Fabian Coulthard and Jamie Whincup tried in vain to better his time.

It is Davison’s first pole position for the Bathurst 1000, which he won in 2009 but it almost wasn’t because qualifying ace, Whincup, was just fractions of a second away from stealing pole from his good friend.

Whincup, who has never been on pole at Bathurst despite three wins – was up on Davison’s first sector time split by a mere 0.0098sec! He was quicker at the next timing mark by an almost unmeasurable 0.0002sec – that’s two 10 thousandths of a second! – and it looked like he would pip Davison on the line. But the FPR driver’s luck held and Whincup missed pole by just 0.0369sec.

“It’s awesome,” Davison said. “It [pole] doesn’t give you any championship points, but it’s such a special part of Bathurst history. As a driver, this is a big moment, pure gold. It’s been a big goal of mine I’ve always wanted to tick. Seeing how close it was at the end makes it more special.”
Shane van Gisbergen will start third with Davison’s FPR teammate Mark Winterbottom – who was on pole in 2007 and 2010 – alongside on the second row of the grid. Fabian Coulthard was fifth quickest followed by Garth Tander, Tim Slade (in his first Shootout),  David Reynolds, a surprisingly slow Craig Lowndes and Steve Owen.

Earlier in the day there were smiles all ‘round in the Shannons/carsales pits when Supercar Showdown winner, Jesse Dixon, and 2011 winner Cam Waters put in solid lap times in the final practice session before the race.

Dixon who is still leaving a margin for error as he learns the Commodore V8 Supercar and the Mount Panorama track, lowered his best time to 2:11.60sec, while Waters hopped in for the final 20 minutes of the session to set a 2:11.21sec lap.

“The car felt good,” Waters said. “I was on new tyres with a full fuel load. We’ve fixed the steering problem and the car’s really good to drive and I’m really looking forward to the race now.”

As are the tens of thousands of spectators who flooded in to the track today. The race day crowd promises to be one of the biggest yet.