Adelaide: IRWIN Racing race one report

ALEX DAVISON BRINGS IRWIN FORD HOME 15TH IN OPENING CLIPSAL 500 RACE
IRWIN Racing's Alex Davison has started the V8 Supercar Championship Season
with a 15th place finish in the opening 250-kilometre race at the Clipsal
500 on the streets of ...

ALEX DAVISON BRINGS IRWIN FORD HOME 15TH IN OPENING CLIPSAL 500 RACE

IRWIN Racing's Alex Davison has started the V8 Supercar Championship Season
with a 15th place finish in the opening 250-kilometre race at the Clipsal
500 on the streets of Adelaide. 

After losing most of practice yesterday after engine dramas, Davison was to
start 26th in today's race.  However, his IRWIN Racing team decided to start
from pitlane and roll the dice with fuel strategy. 

Davison had climbed from 28th on the opening lap to be in eighth when he
made his fuel and tyre stop on lap 42 of 78.  However, three safety car
periods in the race, including the final intervention just one lap after his
stop, compressed the field and he was placed 17th. 

Davison settled into what turned out to be a hot afternoon's racing with air
temperatures in the mid 30s.  Added to this was a hard brake pedal which
forced Davison to use extreme foot pressure throughout the second half of
the race. 

Determined to finish, Davison battled through extreme foot pain through to
the end of the race. 

Under the new qualifying format Davison will have to do all the hard work
again tomorrow from 26th position on the grid. 

"15th is satisfying after what turned out to be a very hard day of racing,"
said Davison. 

"My main problem was that I had to use a lot of foot pressure when braking. 
It did suck the energy out of me and I was very happy to see the chequered
flag. 

"Overall the IRWIN Ford was pretty good, but we can make it a lot better and
we will have another go tomorrow." 

IRWIN Racing Engineer Wes McDougall was pleased with the performance of the
crew and driver in today's race. 

"Considering we started from pitlane we made it by a lot cars and a 15th
place finish is a good result for all that work," said McDougall. 

"The brake issue made it tough over the second half of the race, but we will
work on that overnight ahead of tomorrow's race. 

"There were a lot of good teams and drivers that finished behind us today,
so that's full credit to everyone on the IRWIN team. 

"Today's strategy worked well for us, but even though we have to start again
from 26th tomorrow it is not automatic that we will do that again for race
#2."