James Davison

James Davison (born 28 August 1986) is an Australian professional race driver who drives an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the Blancpain GT World Challenge America. He has also competed in the NTT IndyCar Series, most recently driving a Dallara-Honda for Dale Coyne with Byrd/Hollinger/Belardi in the 2019 Indianapolis 500.

His father Jon Davison was a Formula 5000 competitor and was the long-running promoter of racing events at Sandown Raceway. Davison's grandfather, Lex Davison, was a four-time winner of the Australian Grand Prix. He is a cousin of V8 Supercar drivers Alex and Will Davison. He also competed as a coxswain as part of Scotch College's championship-winning rowing crew in 2003.

Junior formula
In 2004 he joined the ranks of Formula Ford in his native Australia, running in both the Victorian and National Championships. At the end of 2004 he won a scholarship at the BMW Junior Scholarship Finals in Valencia. For 2005 Davison competed in the Formula BMW USA Junior Series, qualifying on the front row at the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Montreal, won at the US Grand Prix held at the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was second at the Denver street circuit and Mid-Ohio and third at Barber Motorsports Park and Road Atlanta. Based on these performances, Davison became part of the Confederation of Australian Motorsport Elite Driver program which included attendance at the Australian Institute of Sport and financial support from the Foundation. At the end of the season, he qualified and finished tenth at the Formula BMW Final at Bahrain.

2006 saw him again compete in the United States in the Formula Atlantic series for Team Australia. After the Denver round, he was dropped by the team for fellow Aussie Michael Patrizi. 2007 saw Davison progress into the Star Mazda Championship where current IndyCar Series drivers Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal previously competed. Driving for Velocity Motorsports, Davison proved to be an outstanding competitor finishing second in the Championship; earning three pole positions and one win.

Indy Lights
2008 found him in the Firestone Indy Lights series, racing for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. He struggled throughout the first half of the season, but captured his first series pole at Nashville Superspeedway, a concrete oval, in July. His first win came in bizarre circumstances in a wet race at Mid-Ohio. While running second on the last lap, race leader Jonny Reid went into pit lane instead of the finish line, handing Davison the victory. Davison also received the Sunoco Most Improved Driver Award at the IRL Championship Celebration held in Las Vegas. Davison finished second in the 2009 Firestone Indy Lights Championship with a new team Vision Racing, again winning at Mid-Ohio. Davison was running at the finish of all fifteen races and finished in the top ten in all but one.

IndyCar
In November 2011 he tested for Andretti Autosport at Palm Beach International Raceway, Florida. He shared the car with Indy Lights driver Gustavo Yacaman.

In 2013 Davison tested a car for Dale Coyne Racing at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. A few weeks later it was announced that he would drive the team's No. 18 car at the race there. It will be his first open wheel race appearance since 2009. Following the horrific accident by Sebastian Bourdais during qualifying for the 2017 Indianapolis 500 it was announced that James would be stepping into the number 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda for the remainder of the season. In the later stages of the race, Davison matched a record set by Tom Sneva in 1980 and became the third driver in Indy history to start 33rd and lead laps in the race, having led 2 laps. He then got caught up in a late wreck with 17 laps to go. A year later, Davison barely qualified for the 2018 Indianapolis 500, bumping out longtime IndyCar rival James Hinchcliffe.

Sports car racing
2010 saw him make his sportscar debut in the Grand-Am Series for Starworks Motorsports Corsa Car Care Dinan-BMW Riley partnering Ryan Dalziel and Mike Forest in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen finishing seventh. He was then drafted in to run at the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen the Crown Royal 200 also at Watkins Glen. In 2011 he drove for Michael Shank Racing at Laguna Seca.

Driving with The Racer's Group in an Aston Martin in 2014, he scored four consecutive GTD class poles across the final races of the 2014 and first race of the 2015 season.

In 2015 he joined Nismo factory team to drive a Nissan GT-R in the Pirelli World Challenge. He continued with Always Evolving Racing in the GT-R in 2016 before moving to The Racer's Group for the 2017 season.

NASCAR
Davison made his first NASCAR start in 2016, driving the No. 90 King Autosport car in the Xfinity Series for the Road America 180. He started 18th and went down one position after making contact with Scott Heckert on the last lap.

In December 2019, Davison announced he had joined Jonathan Byrd's Racing with Hayward Motorsports for the 2020 Daytona 500. However, the team and Davison were not on the entry list and did not participate in the 2020 Daytona 500.

American Open Wheel Racing Results
(key)

IndyCar Series
* Season still in progress.

Sports Car Racing Results
(key)

NASCAR
(key) ( Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. )

Xfinity Series
$$ Season still in progress $1$ Ineligible for series points