SHAE DAVIES WINS CARRERA CUP PRO CLASS AT RENNSPORT

May 28, 2013

round 3 of the 2012 Porsche City Index Carrera Cup Australia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, 28th May, 2013.

Shae Davies has capped off an outstanding weekend at the Porsche Rennsport Australia Motor Racing Festival by winning the round in the Pro driver class – the 23-year old rookie’s maiden success in Porsche Carrera Cup Australia.

Davies and his stand-out Elite class co-driver Adam Gowans piloted the Team Kiwi Racing Porsche to a pair of second place finishes in the two one-hour endurance races – the pair finishing an accumulated 2.4064s from victory across both races with a genuine chance of winning each race on the final lap.

Davies’ and Gowans’ performance was good enough to secure second outright for the round and has propelled Davies to fifth overall in both the outright and Pro driver standings. It is also TKR’s best ever result in Carrera Cup since joining the championship at the beginning of the 2012 season.

The starting positions for Sunday morning’s first enduro were determined by an aggregate of both the Pro and Elite driver’s qualifying results. Davies was 14th fastest among undoubtedly the best ever line-up of professional drivers in PCCA history, while 2009 Aussie Racing Cars champion and current ARC series leader Gowans acquitted himself extremely well to head the Elite session by over four-tenths of a second. On combined times, the rookie pairing would start second for Race 1.

A rapid start allowed Davies to assert the lead into Turn 1 ahead of the highly experienced Warren Luff. Davies soon built a gap of around two seconds back to Luff and maintained the buffer until pitting mid-race to hand over to Gowans, who held the lead until the final lap when a fast-finishing Nick Percat (Pro) used the advantage of four fresh tyres to carve his way through the field and take a nail-biting victory. In both races, the TKR crew opted to change only the highly-loaded right front tyre.

In Race 2, Gowans replicated Davies’ excellent start to lead the opening lap and would ultimately close out his fine stint in sixth position behind the gun Pro quintet of Craig Baird, Luke Youlden, Steve Owen, Tim Slade and Percat. During the driver change, a tangled seat belt cost Car #21 around eight seconds and also forced Davies to finish the race in the taller Gowans’ seating position. Once he rejoined, Davies charged past Elite class runners James Koundouris and John Penny and fell short of race winner Max Twigg (driving with Youlden) by just over half a second at the finish. Despite ruing the lengthy pit stop which undoubtedly cost he and Gowans the Race 2 victory, Davies was ecstatic with the eventual result.

“This is awesome! What a weekend. Massive, massive thanks to the Team Kiwi Racing guys and of course Adam who we knew would be the ace up our sleeve this weekend… it was his performance in qualifying that got us to second on the grid for the opening race and that really set us up for the weekend. I’m absolutely elated with this result, taking home my first winners’ trophy in Carrera Cup has happened much sooner than I imagined and I am immensely pleased with the pace we have shown this weekend in the best Carrera Cup field ever seen in Australia. I can’t wait for Townsville.”

RESULTS: Rnd 3, Porsche Rennsport Australia – Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW; May 25-26

	Race 1	Race 2	Round (Overall)	Round (Pro)	C’Ship (Overall)	C’Ship (Pro)
Started	2	2
Finished	2	2	2	1	5	5

NEXT RACE: Rnd 4, Sucrogen Townsville 400 – Reid Park, Qld; July 5-7

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POLE & FEATURE RACE WIN FOR DAVIES

Apr 24, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, 24th April, 2013.

Shae Davies again showed he was the class of the field at the second round of the Kumho Tyres V8 Touring Car Series, held last weekend at South Australia’s Mallala circuit – just one hour north of Adelaide. Despite having never previously driven on the twisting and historic 2.4k layout, Davies was quickly down to competitive times on old tyres in practice, before producing a stunning lap in qualifying to take his second consecutive pole position.

Race 1 saw Davies lead off the line before opening lap contact from behind at the Southern Hairpin saw him shuffled down the order. Thereafter he fought back to challenge for the lead, before again being spun out of third place, when a further incident saw him again sent tumbling down the order. He ultimately charged up to fifth spot at the end of 15 frustrating laps, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process, but was furious at being tipped out of a better finishing position.

“I’m pretty peed off I have to say. I made a perfect start before I got bundled off the road at turn three, then after fighting back I was nailed by Terry Wyhoon … I got penalised for the exact incident at the first round, yet here - nothing – to same I am bemused is an understatement. The car was quick but I was forever fighting my way back through the pack. What goes around comes around they say.”

Sunday was a much better day, with the Main Beach 23-year-old driving his Fernandez Motorsport Falcon to a solid second in the wet Sunday morning affair, having traded the lead with series rival Wyhoon throughout the race. Davies saved his best for last, executing a great drive from fourth (on accumulated points) grid spot, passing his way into the lead on lap seven after rocketing from fourth to second on the opening lap. He also scored the fastest lap of the race despite less than perfect conditions and continues to hold the championship points lead heading to round three in June.

“Today was great. I’d never driven in the wet in one of these cars, but I felt confident throughout and was more happy to recover to second in the morning race. It was so cold and windy that the track was very slippery and it was a struggle to warm up the tyres for the feature race, but my start was good and the car was very strong under brakes, which gave me the real confidence to push hard early. To pass Terry (Wyhoon) for the lead, cleanly and fairly, and then go on to control the remainder of the race was very satisfying, and I really learnt a lot during the day that I know I can put to good use in the future.

“Jose (team boss, Fernandez) and my engineer Geoff Slater coached me well all weekend and today was a reward for all of the team by bringing the car home at the head of the field after such a frustrating day on Saturday. Roll on the next event, which is at Winton and a track I know very well, so I’ll be pushing hard for another pole and some more race wins there.”

RESULTS: Rd 2 KUMHO TYRES V8 TOURING CARS SERIES – Mallala Motorsport Park, SA: April 19-21