VOL. 52 ISSUE 30 JULY 28, 2015 P75
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEL EDGE
W
hen Ducati's reigning
World Champion Carlos
Checa rode to victory on
his 1098R at the USA's Miller
Motorsports Park in May 2012,
what odds do you suppose
you could have got that it'd be
another 74 races and three years
short of a month before a Ducati
motorcycle would win another
World Superbike race?
But finally, after the longest
dry spell in its glorious Super-
bike racing history spanning 27
years, 14 Riders' World titles and
17 Manufacturers' crowns, British
rider Chaz Davies took Ducati
back to the top step of the ros-
trum again in the third round of
the 2015 series at Aragon. And
then he bagged the double vic-
tory at Laguna Seca last week.
He did so aboard the bike that
until now had failed to deliver,
the radical Panigale R with its
ultra short-stroke Superquadro
motor.
The chance to ride the Davies
race-winning Ducati F15 fac-
tory racer came two days after
the WSBK round at the glorious
Imola circuit – and after testing
Chaz's 2014 bike last September
at Mugello, I was looking forward
to comparing the two. For in the
meantime there's been a radical
shakeup in the World Superbike
regulations, aimed at reducing
costs by returning the category
closer to its roots, and making
the racebikes on the starting grid
