DEFENDING Australian Formula 2 champion Corey Davoll’s biggest race over the weekend was not on the water at Grafton but on the way there.
Davoll in his KD Motorsports Formula 2 boat won three races in the third round of the Australian Formula Powerboat Grand Prix series at Grafton, but he nearly didn’t make it there.
At the end of April, a boat rolled right in front of Davoll on the water and with no room for manouevre, Davoll t-boned his opponent’s capsised boat and caused a lot of damage to his own craft.
Davoll spent the week leading up to Friday, June 24, putting the finishes touches to his rebuilt boat, and nearly gave up on his hopes of going back to back with winning the Formula 2 title.
“On Wednesday, I almost threw the towel in and said we were going to miss it, but we had the sponsors get behind me and help me finish it off on Thursday,” he said.
“The boat had some pretty heavy damage and we spent a week putting it back together.”
Davoll said his sponsors urged him to keep going, and late on Thursday evening finished repairing the boat and was off to Grafton shortly after.
In a way the accident in April was a blessing in disguise, because the boat was fitted with new parts which worked to perfection at Grafton.
“We had being playing with the boat set up a lot in the previous rounds,” he said.
“With the accident we broke a few things, and we had to replace a few parts and components in the boat and make the performance a bit better.
“On Sunday morning we had the boat set up perfectly for the track.”
Davoll won three of the four races at Grafton, setting up a last round showdown to see if he can steal the lead back and win the championship again.
“I was feeling good after the races,” he said.
“It made the week worthwhile, all the sleepless nights and everything.
“We thought we had kissed the championship goodbye but we have gone from fourth to second and sit only a few hundred points behind the leader.”
The last race is in August at Port Macquarie and Davoll will need to have a blinder if he is to win the championship.
“No one has ever back to back won a F2 championship two years in a row. I want to make a bit of history and pump up every one who has helped me out throughout the year,” he said.
