SBK, Laguna Seca, Davies: "We need to start now"

It's comeback time for team Aruba Ducati. Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies both have their own personal history with the Monterey track. Chaz took the double here last year on the Panigale R, also scored the pole and best lap of the race, while Giugliano just missed out on the win in Race 2 in 2013. Davide has bad memories of Laguna however, after last year's crash that compromised the rest of the season as he suffered several fractured vertebrae.

Davies is hoping to buck the trend that, since Imola, has seen him continue to lose ground to the two Kawasakis, with just two third places scored in the last three rounds. It's time to make up for this: “I really enjoy riding in Laguna Seca, it’s different from any other track on the calendar and quite demanding, both for the bike and the rider. All season long, we’ve always had the pace to fight at the top, but the last few rounds haven’t been as smooth as we would have liked. Some unexpected difficulties have slowed us down a bit and we’ve lost points in the championship. That said, I still believe we can turn things around but we need to start now.”​

Davide Giugliano, as well as facing up to his rivals, also has to deal with ghosts of the past, but he is in high spirits as a result of the increasingly solid results scored in this second part of the season: “In the last three rounds, we managed to progressively improve together with the team, and we stepped on the podium in Sepang, Donington and Misano, even if we would have liked to have done better in terms of consistency. I always liked the Laguna Seca track before getting badly injured last year, so the goal is to leave the past behind. We’ve already done that in Phillip Island, where we had two solid races, and we’re confident we can do it also this time around.”