Every rider who comes into WorldSBK will hit some key milestones along the way and one rider who is on the verge of this is Chaz Davies who heads into the Prosecco DOC UK Round at Donington Park on 99 WorldSBK podiums.
A podium in front of his home fans will mean Davies brings up a century of WorldSBK podiums in his career and only the sixth rider to reach this milestone. Jonathan Rea leads the way on 194 podiums, 64 podiums clear of two-time Champion Troy Corser. Noriyuki Haga is the highest-placed rider without a Championship to their name sitting in third in the all-time list with 116 podiums, while 2013 Champion Tom Sykes sits on 112 podiums, three ahead of Carl Fogarty.
It means one more podium will move him into an exclusive club of riders who’ve taken 100 podiums in the fastest production-based Championship and would also leave him only nine behind Fogarty in the all-time list. Davies heads into the UK Round on the back of three retirements at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” and will be looking to bounce back in the fight for top Independent rider against Garrett Gerloff .
There will be reasons for Davies to feel optimistic that he can reach the milestone at his home event having finished on the podium on four occasions out of 17 races contested at Donington Park while he has finished just outside the podium places on three occasions with fifth place.
Davies has already shown he has the pace to fight for podiums in the 2021 campaign after making the switch from the factory Ducati outfit to Independent squad Team GoEleven, ensuring Davies stayed on the Ducati Panigale V4 R. Having taken his 99th podium at the Circuito Estoril earlier on in the campaign, Davies will be looking to take to the rostrum again in 2021 to achieve this historic milestone.
Should he reach his 100th podium while riding for Team GoEleven or any other Ducati-powered team, Davies will claim his 90th podium while onboard a Ducati machine having claimed four while on an Aprilia bike in 2012 and six in 2013 while riding a BMW. Having taken his first Ducati podium in 2014 at Imola, Davies has stood on the rostrum every single season throughout his career including racking up 89 podiums for the Bologna-based manufacturer to date.
A 100th career podium and a milestone of podiums for Ducati at the same time would be a fitting achievement for Davies who has dedicated so many years to fighting for titles with Ducati.
