Two-time Bathurst 1000 winner Will Davison has dedicated his 21st career race victory today at Sandown in Melbourne to late friend and former NRL coach, Paul Green.

Green, an NRL premiership-winning coach, passed away suddenly last week.

The former North Queensland Cowboys and Queensland Origin coach was a close friend of Davison.

Davison cruised to victory in Saturday’s Race 24, which was his first Sandown win since 2009.

The Shell V-Power Racing Team driver won from pole with a clinical display from start to finish on the difficult Melbourne circuit.

Defending Supercars’ Champion Shane van Gisbergen was second in his #97 Red Bull and extended his lead to 401 points, with Davison’s teammate Anton De Pasquale third.

Davison, who this week signed a new deal for 2023 with his Shell Ford team, paid his respects to his late friend.

“I wanted to do a big shoutout to the Green family, for Paul Green,” Davison said.

“He was a friend of mine, and so many people. I’d like to dedicate this to him.”

Davison’s win was his second of the season following his breakthrough in Perth.

The 39-year-old has finished second eight times this season, with Saturday’s pole his seventh of 2022.

Davison was relieved to finally convert to victory given his #17 Mustang had race-long winning pace.

“It’s a relief to know we’ve got a good race car now,” he said.

“Of course we can look at little things here and there, but we can focus on executing qualifying laps.

“It’s going to be tighter again tomorrow, touch wood, laps are coming quite repeatedly. I’m sure everyone will step it up.”

Davison remains fourth overall, albeit just 50 points behind second-placed De Pasquale. Cam Waters remains second on points heading into tomorrow’s back-to-back qualifying sessions and two races.

Cars will return to the track for dual qualifying sessions at 10:55am local time on Sunday.

Sandown Race 1 Results