Interview with Chaz Davies at the Kawasaki Race Team Party in Irvine

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BW: Your timing is just about perfect, isn't it? Your second year in Formula Xtreme and the new owners of the AMA race series decide to make it the premium class next year.

CD: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it all works out. The structure sounds quite complicated, in terms of horsepower limits and rider weights, but it'll be interesting to see how it unfolds in the next month or so.

BW: How did you feel about the Daytona win coming as a kind of afterthought, you know, when the stewards disqualified Josh Hayes' Honda? You didn't even get to stand on the top step of the box.

CD: It was a bit of an anti-climax. At the time it was great to be second on the podium, but it would have been great for me, and for the team, to have been on the top at the victory ceremony. It was a strange series of events.

BW: How do you view the Hondas this year? They seem to be fairly strong, don't they? Where do you see that bike's strengths in relation to the Kawasaki? What do you have to do to win on a regular basis?

CD: Last weekend's bike (at Barber Motorsports Park) was good enough for a win. But I made that mistake. I was about to pass Cardenas, and moved onto a part of the track I don't usually use. As I moved back onto the line, I must have hit a bump or something, because it made the back of the bike kick, and then it came really sideways. I think it hit the lock, and then it snapped straight. It upset me and I ran wide. There wasn't much I could do after that, but I hung on for third. Still, I think we can match Honda. They have their strong points and we have ours. It's difficult to distinguish where they're faster and where we're faster. But, you know, we had a terrible test at Barber last month, and I was a second or a second-and-a-half off the pace we ran in the race. Now we go back to tracks I think I'm good at, where I think we have a good chance.

BW: Good luck for the rest of the season.

CD: Thanks.

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