AMA Superbike: Davies close to Sportbike win

Chaz Davies came achingly close to winning his first race on the factory Aprilia in the 2009 AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike series, only to have victory stolen on the penultimate lap by Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom.

In an attrition-filled race, Davies took the lead from Bostrom on the 15th of 21 laps, with Bostrom re-taking the spot one from the end with a late braking move in the final turn of the 2.24-mile Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca road course.

Davies, riding a Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies Team Aprilia RSV1000R v-twin chased the Team Graves Yamaha factory rider to the flag but came up short by .226 sec.

“All in all I’m happy,” Davies said. “It’s my first podium of the year and the bike was fantastic.”

Corona Extra Honda’s Neil Hodgson got knocked down in the second turn of the AMA Superbike race, only to get a reprieve when a red flag stopped the race. That gave him a second chance and he tried to make the best of it, but was held back by electronics and front end problems.

“That was pretty much the limit for me,” he said, adding that the shoulder he dislocated in March “didn’t hold me back one bit. Just a few areas of the bike that we need to improve that we’re going to improve for the next race.

“Hopefully that’ll give us two or three-tenths a lap which is probably all we need really to be getting on the podium and hopefully winning some races.”