Chaz’s final flourish

CHAZ DAVIES took an emotional World Superbike win in his final race for the Aruba Ducati team yesterday as newly- crowned champion Jonathan Rea crashed out.

Just a day after Rea made history in Portugal l with his sixth consecutive title, the Kawasaki Team rider made a rare mistake as Davies ( inset) coasted to o the final victory of the year ar at Estoril.

Davies, who has been replaced at the factory squad and still has no firm plans for next season, said: “My mechanics had written personal messages on the tank, so it was hard to go out and concentrate and pull something out the bag. I was sat on the grid welling up.

“You have to put everything to the back of your head sometimes and just send it and that I did, it worked and paid off.” Saturday’s race winner Toprak Razgatlioglu led the opening lap but Davies was on a charge and made his move into turn one on lap two, hitting the front and quickly edging a gap.

Behind, Rea had caught Razgatlioglu’s Pata Yamaha and as the pair battled for the runner- up spot, the Northern Irishman tripped himself up and crashed out. This gave Davies a clear run to the flag and with three laps to go team- mate Scott Redding caught and passed the Turkish rider to take second, making it a Ducati one- two for the final race.

“What a fairty- tale ending,” added the tearful Welshman.

“Who knows what the future holds? For now I’ll say thank you to everyone and I’ll hopefully see you again.”