It was smart strategy that won Chaz Davies the opening race of the French round of WorldSBK; but in Race 2, it was patience and perseverance that won out.
The Welshman clocked up his third win in four races, and each have come in very different circumstances. A dominant victory in Germany started this rich vein of form, but France showed how strong Davies has become.
The decision on whether to be conservative or aggressive with your choices wasn’t the key in Magny-Cours, rather it was just about having belief in your convictions.
With a drying track, Chaz Davies was one of the few riders to start the race with intermediate tires, and the gamble proved worth the risk for the Ducati rider, as he romped to victory.
In the early stages, with a wet track, Davies was a sitting duck to riders with more grip from full wet-weather tires. The Welshman even said afterwards that “I was so slow that I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone had hit me!”
When the track started to dry, the race came to Davies, and rather than being a sitting duck he became a shark and picked off his rivals. It was an inspired race by Davies who rarely seemed to have push but instead kept calm and allowed the race to come to him.
It was a weekend of contrasts in Germany. Four weathers in a race weekend is usually something associated with Phillip Island, but with 86°F temperatures having welcomed the WorldSBK paddock from their summer break, the heat gradually transitioned to a downpour on a cold and windy Sunday.
With Chaz Davies and Jonathan Rea claiming the spoils in the races, there was little reason to think that this was a standout weekend, but in many ways the German round of WorldSBK could prove pivotal when the season concludes.
Just two days ago we told you that Marco Melandri would be headed to the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati World Superbike team, replacing fellow Italian Davide Giugliano. That news has been publicly confirmed today, with Melandri set to join Chaz Davies on the factory WSBK team.
The move is a surprising return for Marco Melandri back into motorcycle racing, as the Italian took a hiatus during the 2016 season, after a less-than-amicable departure from the struggling Aprilia MotoGP team last year.
Melandri’s reputation as a racer, and perhaps his desperation to come back to motorcycle racing, comes with a price though, as the former 250GP World Champion is said to be forgoing a salary from Ducati Corse. Instead, Melandri is bringing his own money to the team, and likely has a performance-based pay schedule.
While the MotoGP grid is as good as settled, Silly Season for World Superbikes is in full swing.
With the Kawasaki riders’ contracts settled before the summer break, attention has turned to the other seats, most of which are up in the air. In addition, there could be some changes in machinery, with some teams eyeing a switch of manufacturers.
The biggest news – still unofficial, but widely believed to be a done deal – is that Marco Melandri is set to make a return to the World Superbike paddock, this time in the factory Aruba.it Ducati team alongside Chaz Davies.
Melandri has been angling for a ride ever since his departure from the factory Aprilia MotoGP squad, a move he had never wanted to make in the first place.
Over the past twelve months or so, he has been linked to rides with Yamaha, Aprilia, BMW, and Kawasaki in World Superbikes, and – possibly the most bizarrely inaccurate rumor to be published in a while – to a ride with BMW in MotoGP.
The fact that BMW have no intention of racing in MotoGP, and the break up with Melandri in 2013 so acrimonious that they would not have him back anyway is what made that particular rumor so entertaining.
Episode 31 of the Paddock Pass Podcast comes to you from Misano, Italy where David Emmett joins Steve English for the recent World Superbike round. The two talk about the weekend’s racing, and catch us up with the general happenings of the WSBK paddock.
The obvious major topic of discussion is Jonathan Rea’s domination so far this year, as he leads Tom Sykes and Chaz Davies in the Championship standings.
Talk about the other “factory” teams also occurs, mostly looking at the differences of factory support in WSBK. This includes the plight of Nicky Hayden and the Honda Racing outfit, as well as the Pata Yamaha and Milwaukee BMW squads, who don’t have the same budgets and resources as Ducati and Kawasaki.
In addition to that, we think you will enjoy the conversation about Leon Camier and MV Agusta, both of who had great outings at the Misano round. MV Agusta is slowly making progress with its program, but the company’s financial difficulties put clouds over the Italian outfit’s future.
To finish things up, the guys also have a frank conversation about the difficulties riders have moving from WSBK into the MotoGP paddock.
Whether you are a regular follower of World Superbike racing, or just a casual observer, we think you will find this episode both highly insightful and entertaining.
As always, be sure to follow the Paddock Pass Podcast on Facebook, Twitter and subscribe to the show on iTunes and SoundCloud – we even have an RSS feed for you. If you like the show, we would really appreciate you giving it a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
