Luca Scassa believes he is ready for the challenge as he prepares to ride a third Aruba.it Ducati in this weekend’s World Superbike round at Misano. The Italian will compete as a wildcard alongside regular riders Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano but hasn’t raced at Misano in World Superbikes since 2010 and is hopeful of putting up a stronger challenge than he did five years ago.
“The weekend is finally approaching. The Misano track is one of those that has given me great emotions in the past and can hopefully do the same in the future. I’ve trained hard in recent days, so as to arrive at the track as prepared as possible. It will be a weekend of hard work, but I feel more at ease with each lap I make on the Panigale and hope that the feeling continues to improve so that I am able to record some good lap times. This weekend is a first step towards returning to the levels of several years ago…”
Davies saw a run of three consecutive podium finishes end at Portimao but expects to be in the mix once again this weekend and believes the resurfacing since 2014 will favour him.
“I’m looking forward to the weekend as I love racing in Italy, though hopefully the weekend will bring more success than we had in Imola. Last year’s first race at Misano went pretty well and I finished fourth, having battled for a podium, but unfortunately in race 2 I made a mistake and crashed. The track has recently been resurfaced, so this should help with the grip situation which is always critical in Misano, especially with what are generally very high temperatures. Let’s say I’m optimistic going into the weekend and plan to fight for podium finishes or better.”
Giugliano also heads into the weekend with high hopes as he continues his search for a maiden WSBK victory.
“Now we return to race in Italy where there are always so many of our fans who come to watch the racing, something that really makes a difference to me and my team. I really like the Misano track and last year we were able to be very fast but then in the races we were rather unlucky… Let’s hope that the bad luck is a thing of the past and that we are able to complete two great races in front of the home crowd.”
