Alex Davison

Alex Davison (born 3 November 1979) in Melbourne, Australia, is an Australian racing driver. He won the 2004 Australian Carrera Cup Championship. As part of the Davison motorsport dynasty, he is the brother of Will Davison and grandson of Lex Davison.

Junior career

Starting in karts at a young age, he progressed to Formula Ford in 1998 racing a used 1995 Van Diemen. Davison, with the backing of Wynn's, upgraded to a year old car for 1999 and finished third in one of the most competitive Australian Formula Ford seasons behind champion Greg Ritter. He had tied on points with Steve Owen in second, but lost second place on a countback. After two years of Formula Ford, Davison's eyes turned to Europe.

Sports cars

Manthey Racing

Unable to break into an open wheel series, Davison found a role with German Sports Car team Manthey Racing. After initially racing Porsche Carrera Cup in the German national series, Davison was promoted to the Porsche Supercup, a pan-European series supporting several legs of the Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship and finished sixth, including one victory at Indianapolis. Two more years with Manthey in the German series saw no significant improvement and Davison returned home to Australia during 2003.

Return to Australia

Back in Australia, Davison made some appearances in the 2003 Australian Carrera Cup Championship. After breaking through for a round win at the end of 2003, Davison dominated the 2004 Australian Carrera Cup Championship, taking his first and only major championship title to date. Despite having competed in selected V8 Supercars events in 2004 and 2005, Davison was unable to find a full-time role in V8 Supercars, and returned to the Australian Carrera Cup in 2006, joining Paul Cruickshank Racing. He took the seat of outgoing champion Fabian Coulthard and finished second to Craig Baird in the 2006 season. Into 2007, Davison took over the seat Jim Richards vacated from his own team, as Richards concentrated on other series. Davison again finished runner up this time to David Reynolds.

Le Mans Series

In 2008, an opportunity to return to Europe beckoned and Davison took up a drive with Team Felbermayr-Proton in the 2008 Le Mans Series season. Despite not winning a single race, Davison and co-driver Marc Lieb finished runner-up in the GT2 class in their Porsche 997 GT3-RSR behind Ferrari F430 GT2 driver Rob Bell. With the same team, Davison also contested the 2008 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving with Horst Felbermayr, Sr. and Wolf Henzler. They finished fifth in class. Some guest drives in the American Le Mans Series also cropped up, though to no significant success.

Carrera Cup comebacks

In 2012, Davison drove the Simjen 'Silver Bullet' in a return to Australian Carrera Cup. Davison won the first round of the season at the Adelaide Street Circuit before eventually finishing third in the championship.

In 2016, Davison once again entered the Australian Carrera Cup Championship full-time, winning two of the first four rounds at Albert Park and Hidden Valley Raceway.^[1]

Touring cars

Perkins Motorsport

Davison's Carrera Cup form led to him join the Perkins Motorsport V8 Supercars team for the 2004 endurance races, sharing Tony Longhurst's regular season car with Jamie Whincup. The pair finished a creditable 9th at the 2004 running of the Bathurst 1000.^[2] Davison later replaced Longhurst for the final two sprint events of the year when the veteran left the team. This in turn led to a full-time seat with Perkins in 2005 but with results not forthcoming Davison too found himself replaced before season's end.^[3]

Stone Brothers Racing

Having returned from his European racing exploits, Davison returned to a full-time V8 Supercar seat with Stone Brothers Racing in 2009.^[4] The year was largely disappointing, and he finished the year 17th in the standings, with the highlight being a second-place finish at Hidden Valley thanks to a favourable soft tyre strategy. 2010 saw Davison fail to improve, with a ninth-place finish in the opening race of the season at the Clipsal 500 becoming one of only three top ten finishes for the year. He did however achieve his maiden pole position on his return to Hidden Valley, but a potential podium finish was scuppered by an electrical failure. Davison improved to finish 11th in the 2011 season, including his second career podium at the opening race of the year at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.^[3] Despite his better season, Davison was replaced by Lee Holdsworth for 2012.

Charlie Schwerkolt Racing

After spending 2012 in Carrera Cup, Davison was recalled to V8 Supercars in 2013 to drive for Charlie Schwerkolt Racing, a newly formed satellite team operating with Ford Performance Racing equipment.^[5] Davison had an above average season, finishing 13th overall, peaking with a third place at the Phillip Island event.

Endurance co-driver

Davison has competed in V8 Supercars as an endurance co-driver on several occasions. In 2006, 2007 and 2012 he raced with Dick Johnson Racing while in 2008 he raced for Paul Cruickshank Racing. On all four occasions he achieved top ten results at the Bathurst 1000.^[2] In 2014 and 2015, Davison entered the endurance races, now combined to form the Enduro Cup, with Erebus Motorsport, who ironically had bought out his former team Stone Brothers Racing.^[6] This provided Davison with the opportunity to co-drive with his brother Will Davison, and included a 4th-place finish at the 2014 Bathurst 1000. Davison also entered the final sprint round of the 2015 season, the Sydney 500, for Erebus Motorsport as a replacement for Ashley Walsh.^[7]

Personal life

Davison is the son of Australian Formula 2 champion Richard Davison, grandson of four times Australian Grand Prix winner Lex Davison and brother to Will Davison. His uncle Jon Davison, and cousins James Davison and Charlie Davison also are linked with the sport.

Career results

The Ford FG Falcon of Alex Davison at the 2010 Clipsal 500 Adelaide

The Ford FG Falcon of Alex Davison at the 2011 Clipsal 500 Adelaide

Davison contested the 2012 Australian Carrera Cup Championship in this Roma Caravans entry

Bathurst 1000 results

Year	Number	Team	Car	Co-driver	Position	Laps
2004	7	Castrol Perkins Racing	Holden VX Commodore	Jamie Whincup	9th	160
2005	7	Autobarn Racing	Holden VZ Commodore	Allan Simonsen	20th	129
2006	18	Dick Johnson Racing	Ford BA Falcon	Grant Denyer	9th	161
2007	18	Dick Johnson Racing	Ford BF Falcon	Andrew Thompson	8th	161
2008	111	Paul Cruickshank Racing	Ford BF Falcon	Fabian Coulthard	10th	161
2009	9	Stone Brothers Racing	Ford FG Falcon	Shane van Gisbergen	13th	161
2010	4	Stone Brothers Racing	Ford FG Falcon	David Brabham	13th	161
2011	4	Stone Brothers Racing	Ford FG Falcon	David Brabham	16th	161
2012	17	Dick Johnson Racing	Ford FG Falcon	James Moffat	10th	161
2013	18	Charlie Schwerkolt Racing	Ford FG Falcon	John McIntyre	13th	161
2014	9	Erebus Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG	Will Davison	4th	161
2015	9	Erebus Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG	Will Davison	12th	161

Complete Porsche Supercup results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2008	Team Felbermayr-Proton	Horst Felbermayr, Sr. Wolf Henzler	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	GT2	309	27th	5th

References