Chaz Davies aims to bounce back in today’s second World Superbikes race after crashing out of his maiden race in Argentina.
The Knighton-born rider was in sixth spot and fighting to move further up when his move on Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes ended in his retirement as the Villicum circuit made its debut.
But Davies did not further injure the shoulder he bust twice during the summer and there was not too much damage to his bid to finish second in the championship with his Aruba it Racing Ducati outfit.
The 31-year-old’s lead over Michael van der Mark was cut to 18 points with 75 points left to race for after the Dutch rider came home eighth
Already-crowned four-time champ Jonathan Rea swept to his ninth win in a row as World Superbikes made its debut on South American soil.
Davies said:”We were trying to work our way into the race, moving forward and pulling in into the group fighting for the podium, but it’s really hard to pass here because the clean racing line is pretty thin.
“Once I got a good run up on Sykes in the back straight in lap 13, I thought it was the right opportunity to pass him because we were going into one of the cleaner corners.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t clean enough.
“The rear locked going in and, as I let off the brakes a little bit to regain balance, I just lost the front over the dirt. Looking at the positives, our pace was quite good so we’ll have a chance to bounce back tomorrow.”