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Davies Battles Back to a Top 10 on Debut
Tom Davies made his Trico Trans Am Series debut at Sandown International Raceway and emerged from the weekend armed with plenty of knowledge to carry into the rest of his maiden season.
Davies improved rapidly across Friday’s two practice sessions. Improving upon his best lap from practice one by close to six seconds by the time he reached qualifying, posting an effort good enough to earn ninth on the grid. The #42 was part of a remarkably close top 10 that was covered by just half a second.
In race one, Davies was an innocent victim in a multi-car crash while running inside the top 10. The damage to the right front of the Garry Rogers Motorsport car forced Davies to end his debut race with a DNF.
“The weekend didn’t start well for me, getting caught up in a crash in the first race,” said Davies.
“But we managed to push forward from the back in races two and three, and I’m happy where we finished off the weekend and by the end we’re where I want to be at. The biggest challenges for me was getting a feel for racing in these cars, trying to keep the tyres good throughout the races and keeping the brakes cool as well.”
The second race of the weekend was the scene of a fighting charge from Davies, who sliced his way through the field from the back of the grid to finish in ninth place.
Starting from 15th for the final race of the weekend, Davies expertly dodged a pileup on the opening lap and found himself sitting in fourth under the early Safety Car. In the run to the chequered flag Davies battled the likes of Tim Slade and Ben Grice, eventually crossing the line with a highly respectable sixth place result.
““I found the racing really close, which is always good and keeps you on your toes. The closeness of the racing is something I’m quite used to, coming from Formula Ford and Toyota 86, which helped,” said Davies.
“I picked up a few really helpful tips from watching over my teammate’s footage. One of the main things was just the way they place the car on the exit of corners and applied the throttle, which I then applied to my driving, which helped get off the corners a lot cleaner and saved the tyres.
“My expectation for moving forward is just trying to place the best I can while finishing all the races and keeping the car clean. I’d like to be well amongst the top 10 this year, I think we definitely have the pace to be there and we’re leaning more and more each time I’m in the car,” concluded Davies.
Davies leaves the opening round tenth in the standings. Round two takes place from March 15-17 at AWC Race Tasmania, as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries. All the action will be live and free on the Seven Network