The rumors that Chaz Davies would be joining BMW next season more or less came out of the blue a little more than a week ago, after Ben Spies let his pre-contract with the Italian Superbike team expire and more or less confirming that he would be staying put in MotoGP (the announcement that he’ll be riding in Ducati’s Junior team with Andrea Iannone is expected next week at Misano).
After Davies maiden victory in today’s race 2 at Nurburgring, ParkinGO team manager sadly confirmed that the Welsh rider that gave the team the 2011 Supersport title before their switch to WSBK was leaving and that he would be riding for BMW, and now it has been officially confirmed that Davies will be replacing Leon Haslam in the team and joining Marco Melandri.
BMW Italia will be handling the squad after the German manufacturer decided to downsize their official team and transfer factory support directly to Andrea Buzzoni’s squad.
“We are happy that we can welcome Chaz to the BMW Motorrad family. On his way through the ranks, Chaz showed how talented and fast he is. His title win in the Supersport World Championship in 2011 was impressive proof of that. And in his current debut season in the Superbike World Championship, it did not take him long to win his first race,” said Buzzoni, General Manager BMW Motorrad Italia. “We are convinced that Marco and Chaz will form a premium rider line-up, and that in combination with the BMW S 1000 RR, we will have one of the strongest packages in the World Championship.”
BMW Italia is the first team to have officially confirmed their 2013 line-up.
with twowheelsblog
