Davies does the French double
Too strong at Magny-Cours on his booming Ducati factory machine, but it's still shaping as world superbike title No. 2 for Kawasaki's Jonathan ReaDucati’s Chaz Davies cleaned up in round 11 of the Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) at Magny-Cours in France from September 30 until October 2.
The Welshman won both 21-lap races, the first one in mixed conditions on Saturday over Michael van der Mark (Honda) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki), and in the second he get the job done from championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) and Sykes.
"It’s been one of the most important weekends of my career, because we won in very different conditions, reaping the fruits of a lot of hard work with the whole team," said Davies.
Despite his recent superb form, Davies has seemingly left his championship run too late in 2016. He's now on 345pts, still trailing Rea (426) and Sykes (378) by hefty margins.
Saturday’s opener saw weather play a big part in action. With a wet track at the start of the race, most riders opted for wet compounds, but Davies gambled on intermediates which eventually proved to be the ideal choice.
Davies played defence early on the slippery track, and was momentarily pushed out of the top 10, but mounted an impressive comeback as his opponents were forced to pit for tyre changes to cope with drying track conditions. Davies took the win with a 10-second advantage to seal his sixth victory of the season, a personal record.
Rea was fourth from Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) and local rider Mattieu Lagrive (Kawasaki).
Sunday saw the field greeted with almost perfect conditions for race two, with Davies stealing claiming the double for a fifth time in his career.
Leon Camier (MV Agusta), van der Mark and Savadori completed the top six.
Aussie Josh Brookes (BMW) was 12th and 11th in the races, but his return to WorldSBK competition appears to be short-lived with an imminent announcement of a return to the British Superbike Championship in 2017.
In world supersport, Frenchman Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta) gave local fans a reason to celebrate when he won an epic race ahead of exciting newcomer Niki Tuuli (Yamaha) and Ayrton Badovini (Honda).
Turkey's Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) crashed out, keeping the championship open for another round. Sofuoglu remains on 171pts, well clear of teammate Randy Krummenacher (129) with two rounds remaining.
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