Why a Tassie pub is part of the Davison motor racing legend

Supercars star Will Davison’s grandfather crashed his race car into the Longford pub, then ordered himself a drink. He would lose his life in a racing accident two years later, but nothing was going to stop his grandson from continuing the family tradition.

Supercars star Will Davison at the Longford pub, which his famous grandfather Lex crashed into in 1963. Picture: Mark Horsburgh/Supercars

Will Davison’s grandfather Lex lost his life in a motor racing accident, but the V8 Supercars driver says nothing was ever going to stop him continuing his family’s love affair with racing.

In 1963 Lex crashed his Cooper Climax into the pub at Longford, with grand prix racing held in the small Tasmanian town in the fifties and sixties.

Shaken after escaping the carnage with his life, Lex ordered a brandy at the bar and watched the rest of the race from the pub.

Just two years later Lex, who won four Australian Grand Prix titles with the trophy now named after him, lost his life aged just 42 after a horror crash at Sandown.

Will and Dick Johnson Racing teammate Anton De Pasquale visited the Longford pub on Thursday before the Tasmania SuperSprint begins at Symmons Plains on Friday.

The pub’s main bar is named the ‘Lex Davison Bar’, with a plaque listing his achievements the first thing patrons set eyes on when they arrive.

Will’s father, Richard, also races cars and won the 1980 Australian Formula Ford championship.

“The enormity of me being here never gets lost on me. Believe it or not it grows by the years,” he said.

“I’ve been coming here near 20 years now, but the history and meaning gets stronger. Being a new father myself, a new generation of Davison, I think back on what my father did for me and what his father meant to him.

“The imagination grows wilder and wilder for me on the legends who raced here and the tales this town can tell.

“With my dad being here (Tasmania) this year, we’ll go and reminisce on parts of the circuit and feel that family history.”

Supercars star Will Davison at the Longford pub, which his famous grandfather Lex crashed into in 1963. Picture: Mark Horsburgh/Supercars

Will said the legend of Lex’s spectacular crash into the pub had been passed down the generations.

“The story has been told many times,” he said.

“I was just looking out on the road there (on Thursday) and I can picture in my mind him coming over the rise, hard on the brakes in front of the pub, and how light those cars would have been on those tyres.

“Then he’s gone ‘wow how have I walked out of this, I’m going to order myself a brandy’.

“As you can imagine not many walked away from accidents like that back in that era, I’m sure it was a nerve settler.”

Asked if his father was nervous about him continuing the family tradition in racing, Will said: “He definitely had hesitation. My dad was only 11 when he lost his father at Sandown and he’s one of seven children.

“My grandmother Diana Davison-Gaze was very much pushing us down the school route. But when she realised we shared this great (racing) bond, she was well and truly on board when she knew the bug had bitten us and the ship had sailed.

“There’s no way we were backing out of racing cars. With Dad I had to show my commitment for him to support my brother (Alex, fellow driver) and I.

“That’s the important thing, to never push anything down your child’s throat and they can do what they love.”

Supercars star Will Davison at the Longford pub, which his famous grandfather Lex crashed into in 1963. Picture: Mark Horsburgh/Supercars

Will is now a father to one-year-old son, Dash, who will be at Symmons Plains this week. With a name like that it could be difficult to steer him away from the track.

Asked if he’ll pass the racing legacy onto his kids,” Davison replied with a grin: “Golf clubs, a tennis racquet. Probably extra schooling is the advice a sensible father would give.

“It was definitely never pushed onto me, which is a great thing about it. We’ve had an amazing bond with motor racing and for as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with motorsport and race cars.

“It’s a beautiful thing we’ve shared as a family, so you can only wish you’d share something similar with your son. I would not be pushing motorsport on him, but I’m not helping my case running around the house making race car noises every day.”

Davison is sixth on the overall standings after a consistent campaign, but is yet to win a race.

He plans to fix that in the final sprint round of the year.

“The shortness of the circuit and how close it is, thousandths of a second will make or break your weekend,” he said.

“I love racing at Symmons, I’ve had a lot of success but the past means nothing.

“Everyone wants to win but talk’s cheap. We’ve had plenty of top five race results but not enough trophies. We’re focused on increasing our race speed a little bit to get to the top of the podium, but we’re not far away.”

Originally published as Why a Tassie pub is part of the Davison motor racing legend