Davies See His World Superbikes Practice Come To Fiery End

Chaz Davies was forced to hot-foot it away from his Ducati after it dramatically burst into flames at Donington Park.

The Knighton-born rider had to take emergency action during second practice Friday for this weekend’s World Superbikes double header.

Davies parked up on the grass at the Leicestershire track when flames started shooting out of his bike before the rest of it caught fire.

Marshals quickly extinguished the flames as the session was red flagged.

Smoke had started to emerge from the Panigale R bike at the Melbourne loop but Davies did not notice anything different until he rounded Coppice.

Davies said: “I knew it was on fire but I didn’t know how bad it was.

“I thought I’d wait a second to see if anything happened as I didn’t want to just let it burn to the ground but in the end I had no choice but to jump off.

“The first thing I felt was a bit of a slip from the rear and then I saw marshals waving their arms at me but I didn’t see any flags.

“It was a bit weird, there was no mechanical noise I just felt a bit of a slip, and I think there was fuel getting around and that’s obviously ignited somehow.

“But there wasn’t any mechanical noise, there was smoke but it didn’t feel like the engine had let go.”

But Davies lost vital track times as World Superbike rules do not allow teams to have a second race-prepared bike.

He added: “It’s a massive pain in the a*** as we’ve lost 40 minutes of the most important track time of the weekend.

“Of course the morning session is important but the track is just bedding in and you want the afternoon to put the race rubber in and work on the set up for the race.

“You can’t do a lot though. The rules are frustrating as we’ve got a spare bike sitting in the truck anyway it’d make much more sense if we could just have it ready.

“It doesn’t save money, the bike and the parts are there but it’s just one of those things.”

Davies still finished fifth fastest overall and will go straight to Saturday’s Superpole 2 battle for grid slots for the race later.

Last year’s championship runner-up is 42 points behind reigning champ and title pacesetter Jonathan Rea heading into their home race.

Rea had to settle for second spot in practice as Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes – who has won the last six races at the track – went quickest