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Chaz Davies

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The first round after the summer break is always one that fans and paddock personnel get excited about. The German round of the WorldSBK calendar though hasn’t captured the imagination, because of it’s remote setting and, for the riders, the bumpy track surface. 

With Jonathan Rea easing his way towards the history books, as the first rider in history to win the championship three years in a row, there was a feeling from some quarters that it was merely time for marking cards rather than making a mark.

That being so, once the weekend got underway, it did throw up plenty of excitement in what appears to be the final race at the Lausitzring.

Ducati’s Chaz Davies romped to back to back races in Germany, with a superb performance in Race 2 at the Lausitzring.

The Welsh wizard became the King of the ‘Ring, with his third dry weather victory in a row at the circuit. It wasn’t an easy day for the riders however, with spits of rain and the threat of showers hanging in the air. 

“I knew the second race was going to be tighter,” said Davies. “It was hard to come from the third row, I made some good passes out there, and had a lot of fun.”

Chaz Davies had kept his cards close to his chest, prior to Race 1 in Germany at the Lausitzring. Starting from the second row of the grid the Ducati rider stormed into second at the first corner and into the lead on Lap 2.

For that point onwards he controlled the race with a well judged ride that showed remarkable consistency.

Grinding out fast lap after fast lap, he turned the screws on Jonathan Rea, until ultimately the Kawasaki rider had to concede the race, and allowed Davies to cruise to the finish line.

For Rea, the 20 points allowed him to extend his championship lead over Tom Sykes, but it was a hard fought and well earned podium.

Ducati has finally released its Final Edition of the Ducati 1299 Panigale superbike, and the aptly named Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition packs a punch.

Sharing engine parts with the Ducati 1299 Superleggera (sans its aluminum sleeved engine cylinders and sand-cast casings), the Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition makes 209hp on Ducati’s chassis dynamometer, which should be a comparable figure to the Superleggera, as the latter has power figures quoted from an engine dyno.

Though they may produce similar power figures, the Final Edition Panigale does not quite take the Superleggera’s obsessiveness with weight to the same level, using more traditional fasteners and materials for its design. That is to say, it is without all the carbon fiber goodness found on the SL, including its chassis.

As such, the FE tips the scales at 419 lbs wet at the curb. For those keeping score, that mass is just a pound lighter than the Ducati 1299 Panigale S; and 13 lbs heavier than the Ducati Panigale R, which uses the 1199 motor.

Priced at $40,000 for the US market though, this “half a Superleggera” still packs a considerable punch, and of course it holds the distinction of being the last of Ducati’s v-twin superbikes…for the foreseeable future at least.

While everyone else seems to be turning a blind eye to aerodynamics, Ducati continues to be the brand pushing the aero envelope with its designs.

As such, World Superbike fans may have seen this weekend that Chaz Davies was sporting a unique rear end, as Ducati Corse continues to experiment with a lenticular wheel setup.

A piece of technology borrowed mostly from cycling, the carbon fiber disc “wheel cover” provides a more slippery surface for the wind to flow over, than the chaos that comes from a spinning spoked wheel on a motorcycle.

After a last-lap crash in Race 1 at Misano, Chaz Davies has been declared to have broken his back during the incident. The announcement comes after Davies was taken to the Rimini Hospital for further medical assessment, after he was taken by stretcher off the race track – just three corners away from the finish line.

Doctors in Rimini diagnosed Davies with a closed thoracic trauma, which includes aa fracture of the transverse process of the third lumbar vertebra (L3). Davies also suffers from a contusion of the left thumb.