Presteigne ace Chaz Davies secured back-to-back podium finishes at Laguna Seca in the round eight of the WorldSBK superbikes Championship.

Aruba.it rider Davies had secured his first pole of the season in qualifying at the United States circuit, but was reeled in by Jonathan Rea in race one after a ding-dong battle in the early laps which saw the pair go head-to-head over the opening of the 25-lap race.

Davies had held Rea at bay over a hectic opening, but an error at the Corkscrew allowed Rea a run up the inside to snatch the lead on lap seven, and the Ulsterman proceeded to eke out a seven tenths of a second lead up until the final few tours.

It looked as though Davies was in with a chance of a run at Rea over the final five laps, but a mistake saw the deficit increase to two seconds and the Kawasaki rider held on comfortably to take the win.

It was a similar story in race two, the Welshman starting strongly from the third row, immediately recovering positions. After some hectic early laps, partly due to the track's layout that makes it difficult to pass, Davies found his pace and managed to climb back to second position, mirroring Race 1's result.

Reflecting on a busy weekend, Davies said the team had made a step forward which gives them hope for the next round held in Italy on the first weekend in July.

"All in all, we can be happy with this round. The goal is always to win, but it's good to be back at the front and I feel we got the best out of myself and the package this weekend," he said.

"We're back at the sharp end after a couple of tough rounds. We're not too far away from our main rivals, we just need to fine-tune some details. Today I got a good start but, to be honest, I was twitching a bit with the front in the early laps and I wasn't even pushing that hard. Then things leveled down, I got into my rhythm and climbed back to second.

"We've made strides in the areas in which we've been struggling recently, so we just have to go to Misano and see if we can polish up those final details."