Shropshire Star

Double podium delight for Davies as Booth-Amos crashes out

A series of sublime comebacks saw Chaz Davies claim two vital podiums as the World Superbike series returned in Spain.

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The Mid Wales star and his Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team-mate, Scott Redding, were in great form all weekend, claiming a one-two in the opening race.

Davies, 33, from Presteigne, followed up his fine performance with another second-placed finish in race two, with Redding coming home in fourth after struggling for grip.

Following a fifth-placed finish in Sunday's point-scoring Superpole Race, the results left Davies fourth in the championship, just four points behind third-placed Yamaha rider Toprak Razgatlioglu.

The weekend began perfectly for the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team in Aragon as Davies, starting from ninth on the grid, produced his first spectacular comeback of the round.

After Alex Lowes crashed his Kawasaki, combined with some solid race pace, Davies was up to fourth within the first six laps and began chasing down Jonathan Rea, overtaking the reigning world champion with three laps to go.

Davies then attacked team-mate Redding but ran out of laps, finishing second – just 0.3 seconds adrift of the winner.

"It was clear the starting position did not help me, but I got off a good start, and in the first laps I managed to keep a good pace to recover positions," said Davies after race one.

"The feeling was positive and I closed the gap between the leading group and me.

"I tried to manage the tyres then, when I saw Scott and Rea were gaining advantage, I pushed to the maximum.

"I think if I had one more lap, I could have overtaken Scott, but he was still very good at defending himself without allowing me to attack him."

After the stunning one-two on Saturday, Davies secured another podium during Sunday's main race, again fighting for the win – this time with Kawasaki's Rea – until the last lap.

Following a fifth-placed finish in the earlier Superpole Race, the Welsh rider began find enough rhythm to attack Redding, Honda's Alvaro Bautista and Yamaha's Michael Van der Mark, before chasing down Rea but settling for another second place.

"I'm very happy with the way things went this weekend," said Davies.

"I am really satisfied with the work done by the team that put me in a position to be competitive since Friday.

"Unfortunately, the start was not the best and in the first laps I had to fight with the group.

"Then I was able to lap with a good race pace and to fight with Jonny (Rea) until the last corner.

"We will get back on track with solid foundations for next weekend."

Meanwhile, World Supersport 300 rider Tom Booth-Amos, from Newport, was again left cursing what might have been after crashing out of race two, having secured valuable points in the opening battle with a fifth-placed finish.

It proved to be a challenging weekend for the RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki star, in Aragon, despite a positive ending to the first race.

The 24-year-old, starting from 11th on the WorldSSP300 grid, rose an impressive six places and even looked like troubling the podiums at one point before settling for fifth.

However, a crash with Bahattin Sofuoglu in the second forced him to retire early, leaving him fifth in the championship standings during his debut campaign on the class.

Team manager Rob Vennegoor said: “Unfortunately we had no luck this weekend. The speed was there, but when you see the results you get a different story.

"It's a shame but luckily we're racing again soon as we will be at MotorLand Aragon again next week. The goal next week is to fight for podium with good results for all our riders.”

World Superbikes and all the support classes will be returning to Argon again this weekend.

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