Ford driver Will Davison bounced back to claim his seventh V8 Supercars race win of 2012 at the Gold Coast on Sunday.
But the Ford Performance Racing (FPR) pilot says he’s no chance of making a late charge in this year’s championship race, which is increasingly looking like a two-way battle between teammate Mark Winterbottom and Holden rival Jamie Whincup.
Davison’s win came 24 hours after he made a rudimentary error in his first lap of Saturday’s 300km race, hitting a wall within minutes of taking over from Finnish co-driver Mika Salo at the 2.96km Surfers Paradise circuit.
Ex-Formula One driver Salo set up Sunday’s win, driving 56 of the 102 laps in the race – 22 more than his minimum requirement – to hand over to Davison with the No.6 Falcon in a position for victory.
While Davison’s win ends a barren run stretching back to his last victory in May, Whincup’s win on Saturday with French co-driver Sebastien Bourdais and second place on Sunday means the defending champion now holds a commanding 218 point lead with just seven races left in 2012.
Davison said he was delighted to make up for his Saturday error but refused to even contemplate an unlikely title push.
“I was really, really angry with myself to be honest but I used that energy today to come back better and better,” Davison said.
“It’d (the title) be a miracle wouldn’t it? Yesterday put the nail in the coffin, particularly as we were in a position to win yesterday’s race.
“We’ll just try and battle hard and salvage what we can out of the year.”
Davison’s win ended an 11-race winning streak for the TeamVodafone outfit of Whincup and Craig Lowndes but Whincup still heads to the next event in Abu Dhabi within grasp of his fourth V8s crown.
But the four-time Bathurst winner was refusing to get too cocky with a maximum haul of 900 points still up for grabs.
“I say it every year and I’m generally proven right, it always comes down to a handful of points in Sydney,” he said.
“We’ll just keep our head down. In a great position, no more, no less than that.”
FPR’s Winterbottom, who partnered with Australian IndyCar star Will Power for the weekend, emerged as Whincup’s nearest rival by securing his second third-place finish on Sunday, moving ahead of Lowndes in the standings after the 38-year-old could only manage to come sixth in both races.
Winterbottom said he was looking forward to stepping up the rivalry in the Middle East, where the V8s will compete in three short 12-lap races as part of the undercard to the Formula One race at the Yas Marina circuit from November 2-4.
“I think the format’s going to be quite good,” Winterbottom said.
“It’s pure racing, there’s no team to help you. You’ve just got to go out, qualify well and race, it’s going to be a good battle.”
