Aruba Ducati’s Chaz Davies didn’t have complete control of his Panigale in the second part of today’s WorldSBK race in Thailand as the throttle wasn’t talking to the rest of the electronics package and not doing what the Welshman wanted.
Davies crashed in the early part of the race - before it was red-flagged by a Savadori spill - and his crew had to change some parts as a safety measure. The result was the bike wasn’t doing what his right hand told it to do and he ended up stuck in a group, unable to even pass Leon Camier’s MV in a straight line.
Sixth place was the best he could manage after Eugene Laverty’s crash created a hole for him to jump some places but Davies says it is still the best weekend he has had at the Thai circuit.
“Not a good day, to put it mildly. The the first part of the race everything felt good and then I had a misjudgement behind Marco of the closing speed, we braked in roughly the same place but he managed to stop the bike quite a lot in one particular area, I went to the outside just to avoid going near him and my rear locked,” said Davies, speaking at the track.
“It locked, continued to lock and I couldn’t recover it. I was a bit wide at that point as I couldn’t turn it with the rear and it it just span around on me. I was very lucky to see the red flag after that and it definitely helped to get me another bite of the cherry.
“Due to some damage in the crash, we had to change some parts for safety and we had a problem with the throttle not being calibrated with the electronics so what I was doing with my hands, the bike was making its own mind up what it wanted to do. I couldn’t do anything about the guys in front, I was sitting in the group and it was a bit of a disaster really but to salvage sixth out of an eventful afternoon is not the worst.
“It’s important to remember how badly I have come out of these first two races in the last couple of years. Today I didn’t help myself but we closer than ever and we have to take that as a positive.”
