Chaz Davies
On the mend following his Misano mishap!
Hi folks, I’m currently in the good old US of A, right now awaiting results so I can be declared fit to race at Laguna Seca. So this is as good a time as any to catch up with you. As you have probably all gathered by now, it’s been an eventful month!
Misano feels like a long time ago, and came fresh off the back of a disappointing Donington Park. Over the years I have had a few ‘bogey’ tracks, those which for whatever reason I never seem to do well at, or win at, on the Ducati. Phillip Island was one of those where we struggled to get on the podium, but we’ve upped our game there the last couple of seasons. Magny Cours wasn’t a good one either, but we did the double there in 2016. Then there’s Chang in Thailand, which did bite me again this year, Donington and Misano.
Donny was a real shame as I was convinced we’d turned a corner there. Well, maybe apart from the final turn where I crashed! But I was in the lead and feeling better than I ever have done before there. My pace was also good enough for a podium in race 2, but having to avoid half a dozen accidents, one of which took me straight off track, meant the Kawasaki boys were too far away by the time I made it through.
Misano has been ‘okay’ to us, but we’re yet to win there. I did feel as though this year could be different, and it really needed to be if I was going to start chasing Jonny Rea down. We needed some wins to carry us into the second half of the season, which over the last three years we’ve been pretty strong at.
Things started off quite well in first practice, not too far off the pace considering we were working on dialling things in. This carried on for the second session, I was keen to work on the race setup but we were still top five, though my old buddy Leon Camier nipped me back into fifth. Can’t hold that against Leon, he’s doing a great job again this year. For Saturday’s third practice session prior to qualifying, we tried something new on the bike. Pirro had tested something similar on the GP bike last year; it’s basically a covering for the rear wheel, although on ours with a single-swinger it looked a bit like a carbon-fibre satellite dish, as many pointed out. One thing I do love about Ducati is their willingness to try out new stuff that may seem, or look, a bit bizarre, all in the name of pushing performance boundaries. They led the way with the ‘wings’ in GP didn’t they? I know the rest followed suit, but I’d say Ducati were the most advanced in the science.
I even used it again for my second run in Superpole 2, and though I didn’t make the front row I did set my fastest lap time running it. I’d need a lot more time with it to really feel whatever benefits it could provide. The race was pretty good though, I think you’d all agree? At least most of it was! After we spoke last month about it only being fair for the others to catch up, in among all this talk of slowing down Ducati and Kawasaki, a (very) small part of me didn’t mind seeing Michael van der Mark showing us the way around the place on his Yamaha. It proved that the others can not only run with us, but lead us (which was also showcased out by Jordi Torres the following day). At the risk of repeating myself, if anyone should be complaining about lacking compared to two green bikes it should be me, as I’m riding our bike on the limit every race. But I’m not, and won’t, because the rules are fair for all. I’ll bore you all with next month with what I think about WSB maybe becoming even more stock!
Anyway, I did feel sympathy for MVDM when his tyre came off the rim, that’s shit happening to anyone. But it did intensify the race even more. I tried hard to drop Jonny but he did work his way back to me on the final lap, as I found out. I lost the front at the last hairpin (that pushing at the limit thing again...), then Jonny tried to insert his bike in me! Jokes aside, he had no choice but to ‘berm’ me as he was so close. It was an innocent, gentle crash that turned pretty sour, and I really did feel 235kg of bike and rider launch off my back. Thankfully my protective gear is amazing; it could have been much worse. It’s funny, my first thought was ‘pick up bike, beat Rea to the line’! Then after about ten seconds I realised I couldn’t breathe properly, my back hurt, and a lie down was probably the smarter choice. It was decent of Jonny to come find and check on me though, much appreciated at this end... hang on a sec, I’ve been declared fit to race – score! Sorry to interrupt that train of thought guys, but this is great news! So, I’ll finish this time by saying a huge thanks to everyone involved in making me get better, to Hatts for putting up with me, and to all the wellwishers who sent me messages. Time to get back on the horse!