Will Davison. Image: Supplied
That’s the message from DJR CEO David Noble, who faced the media at Sandown just over two weeks after the 43-year-old was given the news that will end a 20-year stint as a full-time driver.
Noble affirmed the decision was made around the Gold Coast 500 weekend but was not the work of a moment.
“Those decisions seem like they come quickly, but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes, there’s a lot of assessment that goes into those decisions,” he said.
“The youth are coming and they’re coming pretty hard in our competition, what they’ve been able to do in the last 12 months.
“[Ryan] Woody, Kai [Allen], [Cooper] Murray, [Aaron] Cameron, those guys, they’re taking it up to the rest of us.
“So it was probably the next iteration of our rebirth last year when we turned over a third of our staff, brought new engineers, a new driver [Brodie Kostecki] in.
“That’s sort of been the continuation of where the improvements needed to come from.”
Why DJR couldn’t make the same silly season mistake twice
The decision came a year after DJR let an option on Kai Allen lapse in favour of retaining Davison – a move that appears a mistake given the young gun’s success with Grove Racing.
Next year’s Supercars field will be the youngest in history with an average age of just 27 at the start of the season.
“The youth has really attached itself to Gen3,” continued Noble.
“The courage to just step into the car and just, give me what I’ve got to see what I can do, that becomes refreshing.
“I don’t want you to pitch that against Will, that’s just what they bring. They bring energy, they bring life, they bring courage to just try certain things.
“There was definitely a shift, and we needed to jump on board with that shift.”
DJR insisted for months that Davison was safe before ultimately swinging the axe, leaving him no time to find another full-time seat.
Davison declined the opportunity to stay on at DJR as a co-driver and is thought most likely to join Grove in place of a retiring Garth Tander.
Noble, who joined DJR in 2023 following a long career in AFL and will himself depart the team at season’s end, said not many athletes are able to enjoy a fairytale farewell.
“The mark of a champion for me is the ability to perform at a high level consistently and over a long period of time, and he ticks all of those boxes,” said Noble of Davison.
“I’ve extremely enjoyed working with him over the last three years, the quality of the athlete, preparing and presenting himself in the fashion that he does.
“He gets in the car every single session wanting to improve a hundredth, a tenth, you know, and that’s just a credit to himself and the condition that he’s in.
“There aren’t many fairytales in sport. Ash Barty is one, Joe Daniher, Oscar McInerney, for me, a couple that have won a flag and they go out in their own manner.
“But that shouldn’t discount his career and how we should applaud his career, not just for what he’s done for us, but for the competition.”
Will Davison opens up on future amid DJR exit
Davison’s Supercars career has included two stints with DJR, undertaking an initial three-year tenure with the squad from 2006 before rejoining in 2021.
He’s a two-time winner of the Bathurst 1000, achieved in 2009 with the Holden Racing Team and 2016 with Tekno Autosports.
Saturday’s opening leg of the Sandown 500 will mark Davison’s 600th Supercars Championship race start.
