Chaz Davies finds missing link
Chaz finally gets the rear of his Ducati V4R fully dialed-in
By Greg Haines
There was delight around the paddock as former favourite Chaz Davies returned to winning ways at Barcelona on Sunday. Controlling the pace from the front, the Welshman dedicated the victory to his and wife Hattie’s first baby Bay who was born in the spring during the coronavirus racing stoppage.
Very much like Jonathan Rea, Davies came out of lockdown with a renewed love for racing. Three times a championship runnerup, the Aruba Ducati rider is now third in the standings after equalling double World Champion Colin Edwards on 31 wins and going one better than three-time title winner Troy Bayliss with a 95th podium; only Rea, Corser, Haga, Sykes and Fogarty have more to their names.
Davies has now started more WSB races on a Ducati than any other rider, moving ahead of Lucio Pedercini with his 177th start on Saturday. With rumours aplenty that the 33-year-old could replace Leon Haslam at Honda next year, while Michael Ruben Rinaldi would take his place at Ducati, Davies kept his focus on-track. Qualifying 11th made life tough in the first two races but he still managed third and fourth, while his Sunday victory came from Row 2. Seeing off Rinaldi and Michael van der Mark, Davies clinched his classy win by 2.4 seconds; it was his second on the Panigale V4 R and first since Laguna Seca in July 2019.
“I’m absolutely stoked,” came the voice from behind the mask. “Thanks to my crew for the setup changes overnight. We found some grip and the bike hooked up. I dedicate this to my daughter Bay, watching at home with my wife Hattie. Love you all!
“I’ve been trying to convince everybody that, if we get the rear to work as well as the front, we can do what we did today. We finally have a good base – I don’t think we changed a single thing on the front all weekend. I know I’ve been on this bike a long time but it still feels I’m waiting for pieces to fall into place. That ride was exactly what I’ve been working towards; incrementally working on balance and traction. “I wanted to manage the race from the front to save my tyre in the long curves. I could hear Mikey (van der Mark) closing in Turns 3 and 4. I used the front under heavy braking to take time out of him, making him work in the longer corners. It paid off. It’s working the best it has been since… forever!”
Rinaldi, who won at Teruel two weeks ago, was on for a Race 2 podium before being instructed to stop with a smoking engine. His GoEleven team didn’t complete at the July test due to budget restrictions in Covid-hit times, so the Italian was on the back foot all weekend. Their press release was titled: “It hurts, but that’s racing.”