MOTORSPORT: A Davison in The Brickyard's classic

Famous Aussie name in the big one at America's most famous racetrack
James Davison, least known of the third generation of the racing dynasty that began with four-time Australian Grand Prix winner Lex Davison in the 1950s and '60s, has turned the wheels, literally, towards his first oval race in America in five years.

That race will be in a little more than a week. It's the Indianapolis 500. What the Americans call The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

It once laid claim to being the biggest open-wheeler race in the world. Its TV audience no longer comes anywhere near the most-watched Formula One grands prix – often the Brazilian GP when it is a world championship-decider – and it has been overtaken in the viewing stakes by NASCAR's Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, the latter at night just hours after the Indianapolis 500.

But the Indy 500 still has the biggest spectator attendance of any motor race in the world. Even though it's not what it was 20-30 years ago, before the great split in American open-wheeler racing, there will still be 300,000 people or more at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Memorial Day, May 25, for the event.

Davison, cousin of Will Davison who will be racing a Mercedes in the V8 Supercar Championship round at Perth's Barbagallo Raceway this weekend and Alex, who will return for that category's endurance races later in the year, has raced – and won – before at the speedway known as The Brickyard, in lesser open-wheeler categories.

But he has driven only two previous IndyCar races – last year, on road courses.

He started working through his three-stage rookie orientation program for The 500 four days after most of the other 32 drivers entered began a week of practice. By the end of 63 laps yesterday the 27-year-old son of former long-time Sandown promoter in Melbourne, Jon Davison, circulated the 2.5-mile (4km) oval at an average speed of 217.052mph – almost 350kmh.

That's mighty fast, but left him at the bottom of a timesheet that had Team Penske's Brazilian three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves at the top with an average more than 10mph faster – 227.166mph.

Teams and drivers get to turn up the turbochargers on their Chevrolet and Honda engines tonight, Australian time; that will give them an extra 40 horsepower for "Fast Friday” practice and the weekend's qualifying.

The field of up to 33 will be set by Saturday evening, with positions from 10th and beyond finalised but the nine fastest drivers to have a shootout on Sunday afternoon to decide the order of the first three rows of the grid.

Two other Australians are driving at Indianapolis and have far better chances of success – Team Penske's Will Power, who leads the IndyCar series but does much better on road and street courses than oval tracks, and Chip Ganassi Racing's Ryan Briscoe, who had pole position for The 500 two years ago.

However, Vern Schuppan remains the best Australian finisher in the classic – third in 1981 – while Geoff Brabham was fifth that year and fourth in 1983.

Davison's career in America stalled after he was runner-up in the 2009 Indy Lights series. Most recently he has been racing an Aston Martin Vantage in the new United Sportscar Championship in the US.

His two IndyCar races last year were with Dale Coyne Racing, but the Indianapolis 500 drive is in the fourth entry from KV Racing Technology, which won the event last year with Brazilian Tony Kanaan.

Two-time winner of The 500 Al Unser Junior, a member of an American racing dynasty and recovering alcoholic, is Davison's "coach” for this campaign.

Davison said that he found driving an IndyCar at The Brickyard "so much more on the edge” than the "pretty straightforward” Indy Lights cars five and six years ago. He said he had achieved his time with "no tows” (slipstreaming or drafting) and having been "very conservative”.

"The team and Al Unser Junior were all really pleased with what we got done with limited running,” Davison said.

"[Two of his KV Racing teammates] Sebastien Bourdais and Townsend Bell were great team players, assisting me as a rookie.”

Davison had been worried in recent years that the chance of fulfilling his childhood dream of racing in the Indy 500 was "fading away”.

"You feel so helpless because you're always trying [to arrange drives], but often restricted financially in motorsport,” Davison said.

"By persevering and turning stones over I finally found some gold, then combined with being in the right place, right time as ever that's required to succeed, I found myself in an IndyCar last year. And now this at the Indianapolis 500.”

Davison's "gold” has been an association with Always Evolving, a brand that has, well, evolved from the California-based aftermarket tuning shop founded by Roger Rodas – who died in the high-speed Porsche crash with actor Paul Walker late last year.

"I met Roger at Sonoma [Raceway, in California] when I was doing my second IndyCar race,” Davison said.

"On the spot he wanted to do a quick sponsorship deal with me and it grew from there.”

Autoweek reports that an engine and tyre bill for an Indianapolis 500 entry is estimated at US$300,000 – that's US$75,000 more than the prize money for last place in the 2013 race.

Another of the great names of American racing, Mario Andretti, midweek gave 102-year-old Edith Pittenger a ride around The Brickyard in a two-seater IndyCar.

Edith has been attending the Indy 500 since 1948 and this was her second outing on the hallowed oval – her first was at 96.

"You can be too young to ride, but you're never too old,” said Andretti, one of the most quotable race drivers of all time.

"There's no value in it,” Edsel Ford II told website More Front Wing this week.

Ford last competed in major open-wheeler racing in 2006 – in the Champ Car category during the great split in America – in partnership with its former British engine company Cosworth.

Chevrolet and Honda are the only engine suppliers in IndyCar racing now after the ill-fated Lotus project.

Ford's American racing efforts other than in NASCAR are focused on the United Sportscar Championship with its EcoBoost engine and an increasing presence in the Global Rallycross Championship – in which all but one round are on American soil, and not to be confused with the new Rallycross World Championship.

Edsel Ford II, a director of the Ford parent company, was asked if the Blue Oval had any IndyCar plans.

"No, no, no,” he said. "I'll be six feet under. No way. Not a chance. No one in the stands.”

The last sentence there may be largely true for many IndyCar races, but not the Indianapolis 500.

"The General Motors guys would like us there [IndyCar racing], and Honda would like us there, but there's just no value in it,” Ford said.

"I've talked to Jamie Allison [director of Ford Racing] a lot about it. He, Raj Nair [Ford's group vice-president of global product development] and I don't think any of us really want to go IndyCar racing.”

However, General Motors' US vice-president for performance vehicles and motorsports, Jim Campbell, said GM saw value in IndyCar racing – and especially the Indianapolis 500.

"Chevrolet has a long heritage in open-wheel racing at Indianapolis,” Campbell said. "When we returned to IndyCar competition in 2012 we were attracted to the new engine formula that focuses on high-performance, small-displacement engines with direct injection and turbocharging ... all designed to optimise power, efficiency and fuel economy.

"These are the same technologies featured in many of our production vehicle powertrains.

"It is also a great place to develop engineers.

"Winning the IndyCar manufacturers' championship the last two years, and races, like the Indianapolis 500, helps elevate the image and opinion of our brand.

"In the spirit of competition, we like to see multiple manufacturers in any series in which we race.”

Chevrolet has been fined US$20,000 and penalised 10 manufacturer points for breaching torque control and traction control engine regulations in last weekend's IndyCar "grand prix” on the revamped Indianapolis road course within The Brickyard venue.

However, Campbell's comments make you wonder whether F1 finally might attract GM as its new "green”, hyrid rules now match the points he so likes about Indy racing. GM has never ventured into F1.

Incidentally, the Lotus 49 with which the great Jim Clark won the first Grand Prix with Ford's V8 DFV in Holland in 1967 was crashed and badly damaged at last weekend's Monaco historic racing event.

The DFV was the most successful engine in F1 history, but Ford has been out of F1 since selling the Jaguar team it owned to Red Bull a decade ago.

Mercs failed to score a single point at the first round of the series at the Hockenheim circuit two weeks ago.

Under the DTM's new performance ballast rules, all the Mercedes C-Coupes will be 5kg lighter at this weekend's second round at Oschersleben.

All the BMWs that finished in the top 10 at Hockenheim will be 5kg heavier, but the Audis that finished second, third, fourth and ninth are unchanged.

Gerhard Ungar, chief executive officer and technical chief of Mercedes affiliate HWA, which has assisted Betty Klimenko's Erebus V8 Supercar team with its E63s, has departed between DTM rounds.

And Toto Wolff, the Mercedes motorsport chief so delighted at the brand's F1 success this season, is not expecting the tri-star to make sudden gains in the DTM.

"Our team has worked unstintingly to go through this year's first [DTM] race weekend with a fine-tooth comb, [but] we know we are well down on the competition at the moment,” Wolff said.

"That deficit can only be reduced bit by bit, so any hope of a significant improvement in Oschersleben is a pipe dream.”