Strong start for Davies and Aprilia

By John Hopkins

DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- Chaz Davies and the Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies Team made an impressive AMA Pro Daytona SportBike debut with a seventh place finish in Friday night's Daytona 200 at Daytona International Speedway.

Despite using a three-stop strategy for the 57-lap race the Welshman ran in the top 10 most of the night and made a solid charge from just outside the top 10 to grab seventh in the frantic final laps after the race's last full course caution, unofficially setting the fastest lap.

"We just went back to basics," said Davies, the defending Daytona 200 race winner with the Attack Kawasaki team. "We had a bone stock motor but the biggest factor was changing the gearing for the race. It was just a huge slipstream at the end and we were able to take advantage of it."

Davies had qualified 14th for the race and earlier in the day hinted that a strong resut could be in the offing.

"We could spring a bit of a surprise today," he said at a press conference to introduce the team held at Daytona International Speedway. "We've had limited track time but I'm already pleased. We're playing catch up with development but I think this is a strong track for the bike."

Davies is joined in the Millennium Technologies team by Texan Ben Thompson, who placed 23rd in Friday night's race after starting back in 49th.

"We still have to figure out what the bike likes and doesn't like," Thompson said before the '200'. "The suspension and geometry will take trial and error. The bike is stable on the brakes and it comes off the turns exceptionally well."

The team is managed by Charleston, SC-based KWS Racing, which has a decade of professional road racing experience and has established a reputation for bringing young racers into the Pro ranks.

"We're trying to expand the team slowly," said team manager Chip Spalding. "This is new for everybody and we don't know how we'll stack up. Our goal for 2009 is to build the team structure and process. We're still in the growing stages of this project."

Spalding added that the team selected Davies and Thompson as riders primarily due to their varied racing experience.

"Ben's experience has been almost exclusively on big bikes where the focus is a bit more on a point and shoot style, while Chaz comes from 250s where it is more about carrying momentum," he explained. "We're going to see which is most beneficial for this bike."