February 18, 2014

 

Superleague contenders Nordsjoen Racing officialised their 2014 line-up with the announcement of Toby Davis as race driver.

Davis, who took part for the team in the two most recent Pre-Season testing sessions, is part of the successful THR outfit and impressed in several outing in GPVWC touring car series over the winter; originally intended to race in Formula Challenge for his debut in the Career Ladder, his first taste of open wheeler competition will come instead at the Superleague Australian Grand Prix.

"Toby is an amazing talent and we're happy to welcome him at Nordsjoen Racing," said Team Manager Will Ponissi. "Together with Agustin Canapino, he makes up one of the most promising line-ups in the whole Championship; everyone in the team is looking forward to working with him."

Davis, who will be driving car number 8 for the 2014 season, confounded many pundits at first by joining a team with no previous THR link.

"Obviously I am still a THR driver through and through, but the opportunity to come to Nordsjoen Racing and race in the premier league at GPVWC was too good to miss," said the Englishman, who went on to state his optimism in the team's chances for the season. "There has been some link up behind the scenes which means that the cars will run THR logos, so as far as I'm concerned it's a win-win situation. Nordsjoen also have a lot of potential in the car, and the team management is a sorted unit; we just need some driver stability now throughout the season and I feel we can challenge for both titles."

Having made a name for himself in touring cars, both within the GPVWC and in other leagues, Davis is still a relatively unknown quantity when it comes to single-seaters. In his first outings he shone, but the eyes of many in Melbourne will be on how he manages the transition.


"The two genres of motorsport are obviously poles apart. Everything happens so much faster in a Formula car, so you're acting on instinct rather than concious thought processes. That will take some getting used to!" joked Davis. "What I would say is that touring cars are, by their nature, usually much more closely matched and I have a lot of experience battling with other drivers, so my ability to race with other cars is not something I question. I expect to be competitive, at least in terms of pace, but getting the consistency right and making sure I'm not error-prone will be the challenges."

With the team made up by him, Canapino and test driver Thomas Jacobs, Nordsjoen will field a team whose last experience at Superleague level dates back to 2010 - when Canapino competed for the short-lived Argentina Racing Team. However, both the Argentine and Davis have plenty of experience in real-life racing to supplement in the racecraft department - something that will ensure a smooth transition into the top tier of GPVWC racing.

"Canapino is obviously a fantastic driver, and I look forward to racing with him" continued the new Nordsjoen signing. "It's nice to be teamed up with someone who is also a real racer, and I find that those who have that experience tend to have better racecraft. We all know that he's a very fast driver, and I think we, together, will make a strong pairing in the Superleague."

" There's a lot of fine detail to the Superleague, and learning all the nuances of how to make the cars fast will be a challenge, but we have a quality team of engineers here at Nordsjoen Racing, and of course it helps to have had a lot of experience myself in a senior engineer role in THR, particularly with regards to strategy and setups. There are often lots of different ways to approach the development of the car, and the setup direction, and these are both things that I'm greatly looking forward to getting involved in with Nordsjoen Racing in 2014 and beyond."

With the line-up now announced and an almost complete set of partners for the team, Nordsjoen Racing will be expected to launch their new contender's livery in the coming days.