Chaz Davies’ fighting fifth at Mid Ohio

Aprilia’s Chaz Davies finished a fighting fifth on Saturday, then seventh on Sunday once he lost touch with the leaders at Mid Ohio in the AMA Daytona Sportbike races on his Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies RSV1000.

Davies said: “I wasn’t aggressive enough on the first lap on Saturday. I didn’t find the holes (to pass anyone) really.

“Today (Sunday) the first lap was much better, my bike was better, but I just struggled to pass. Everybody that I was around was pretty strong on the brakes.

“I consider myself pretty strong on the brakes, I always have been at the end of the back straight, but for some reason I couldn’t pull it up today.”

Buell rider Danny Eslick won both races – Saturdays was a flag to flag victory, Sunday went to the wire with the 1125R v-twin rider swapping the lead six times in the 21-lap sprint with Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking.

In the AMA Superbike class, Yamaha rider  Josh Hayes won both races. Neil Hodgson’s surgically repaired right shoulder continues to be a problem. On a physically challenging track, the Corona Extra Honda rider was a frustrated 11th and ninth.

“I struggled all weekend with my shoulder. I’ve just got no strength in it,” Hodgson said, five months after damaging it in a motocross accident.

Michael Laverty made the mistake of choosing the wrong front tire on Saturday, a decision that slowed his Celtic Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000 to tenth but bounced back to finish sixth in race two.

“We were on the soft front tire and it just tore it to pieces after bloody eight laps and it was just all I could do to bring it home without crashing,” he said. Sunday he was having trouble in two critical turns, but still beat series stalwart Mat Mladin for sixth.

“It was a lot easier to run the pace, but the last ten laps or so, once the rear tire started to move a bit I was having some problems in the final turn and turn one,” said Laverty.