Davison opens up on DJR's 'baptism of fire'
Supercars
27 Feb
Ill health struck DJR crew members at Sydney 500
Brodie Kostecki eighth, Will Davison 15th after Round 1
Davison "dropped a cylinder" after Sydney test day
A series of ill health hits contributed to a rollercoaster weekend in Sydney for Dick Johnson Racing, Will Davison has revealed.
The Ford team debuted two new Ford Mustangs at the Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round, with the team welcoming 12 new staff and star recruit Brodie Kostecki.
As Kostecki got to grips with his new car and team, DJR staff began getting sick, with the team pushing through the weekend.
Two-time Bathurst winner Davison was among team members to "drop a cylinder," the 22-time race winner telling Supercars' Cool Down Lap podcast: "They've been dropping like flies... I just had no voice.
"And then there was some food poisoning or some gut stuff going around. We've had it all here [but] we've pushed through the weekend. Baptism of fire."
It was a wild weekend for Davison, who was beaten from pillar to post in Saturday's race, before bringing home a hard-earned top 10.
“Tough weekend, but good vibes, good energy. Quite a resilient bunch,” Davison said.
"So, after what we've been through the last few days. Last year probably would have got everyone really down, but it’s fresh energy, fresh group.
"We're just gelling. We're just settling with one another. Unfortunately, on the big scale, pretty underdone in a few ways. Just everyone learning the processes of this team. 12 new faces.
"It was just a string of firsts. A totally different car philosophy that I was incredibly unfamiliar with, to be honest.”
It was also Davison's first weekend with new Race Engineer Tom Moore, who joined DJR from Erebus Motorsport.
Davison said he was getting up to speed with Moore amid the philosophy change, and was happy to finish a troubled weekend on an otherwise good note.
"Tom was really methodical. We didn't really feel like we even got working well together until like last night,” Davison said.
"It was like we finally started to understand how they tune the car. Bit by bit we started to make some sense of it. We’re not there, but we finished on a pretty good note today.
"But we had a lot of issues, to be honest, niggling issues which were very costly, on day one and two in the races, but no major issues today, it was a good clean day."
