Davison’s virtual oval racing debut

Tomorrow morning will bring a new experience for veteran racer Will Davison.

The 37-year-old will take part in his first official oval race, going head-to-head on simulators with some of IndyCar’s finest talents, including his cousin James.

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It will be part of a 250km virtual open-wheel race at the Indianapolis oval circuit as part of the Elite Racing League – not to be confused with the IndyCar iRacing Challenge that Scott McLaughlin is contesting on a weekly basis.

Other names scheduled to compete include Alexander Rossi, Helio Castroneves, James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden, Juan Pablo Montoya, Marcus Ericsson and Will Power.

Davison scored direct entry after being invited by his cousin, who is a five-time Indy 500 starter.

“James has got me entries into a couple of their invited-only races and tomorrow is sort of the main all-star event where they have nearly got a full field,” Davison told Supercars.com.

“I gather they’re going to get quite a few viewers watching it over there [in the US].

“I’ve done a little bit of practice the last few days.

“There’s a lot of race craft in it and I’m just trying to stay out of trouble because once you crash you’re out and it’s really easy to get caught up in an incident. It’s pretty intense, quite enjoyable.

“Just the last few nights I’ve had a bit of a play at the drafting and just where you position the car and the timing of your runs; to try not to come together with anyone is really tough.

“But yeah, it’s actually really good fun so I’m looking forward to having a go tomorrow with all of the gurus and try to not do anything stupid, hopefully get to the end.”

Davison has a wide array of racing experience, headlined by a Minardi Formula 1 test in 2004.

Oval racing, though, is a discipline he is unfamiliar with.

“I’ve done zero oval racing, none at all,” Davison said.

“It’s a whole new world for me.

“I could go and qualify reasonably well but it’s then in the race, in all of the turbulent air and losing downforce and managing a lot of the settings [that is the hard part]. It was quite cool, pitstops and cautions and restarts.

“It’s quite cool being up against all of those oval gurus and racing wheel-to-wheel with them online, it’s good fun.”

The Elite Racing League event is scheduled to take place from 10am AEDT Saturday.

Davison will then switch back his focus to preparing for the BP Supercars All Stars Eseries opener on Wednesday night.