www.chazdaviesracing.com

Preseason April 6th

After my last test in early February things have been pretty easy going and to be honest I've been a bit bored, just itching to get back on the bike!

I've been doing some mountain biking as always. I would prefer to be able to mix the mountain biking 50/50 with a bit of running but my ankle still isn't up to it from my crash in Japan last September. The bone I think is fine but all the tendons/ligaments and whatever else makes up the ankle is where the problem is. 1 day of running means 3 days off!

I've done very little motocross. Only a couple of days of riding. Its not so simple for me to just go out and ride because the farmer who owns the field that I ride in, has his own cows and sheep in there, and when me Dad go ripping through his field, me on my 450 Yamaha MX bike and my old man on his 450 Yamaha Quad we tend to scare the sh*t out of his cattle! I've done a bit of karting as well. Toby Moody came out the other week for a session on a Sunday afternoon which was a good laugh. Toby is a pretty handy driver considering he doesn't do it too often (so he tells me)! On a Sunday afternoon there is always what we call 'Owner Driver Racing' at my Dad's circuit. There is about 12-15 drivers who all have the same karts in the race, that Toby and I were racing in, so it's a good scrap. In a couple of the races Toby got the edge on me when the lights went out so I had to force a couple of tough passes on him. There was no way I was going to let a commentator beat me in my back garden!!!!

Good news since the last test is that I have a few more personal sponsors which will help towards flights, hotels, hire cars etc as we have to pay them. The first is a company called FAI Autoparts who are the UK's leading independent distributor of replacement auto parts www.faiauto.com. The second is Unity Audio who are distributors of professional audio hardware & software products www.unityaudio.co.uk.

Other sponsors that I have are all new projects. One is a new idea called 'Bikerplan' www.bikerplan.co.uk. The idea behind it is, that if you have a bike on the road, you can insure yourself, so that if you rack up 12 points and lose your license (which isn't too difficult nowadays) the insurance will cover you for the term that you are banned for, whether it be by getting you places in a taxi, bus, train etc. You may have read about this connection with me in recent press releases. The original press release, from Bikerplan. was sent out correctly but unfortunately somewhere along the line the wording was changed. The press release that appeared in the news stated that the company had 6000 members & therefore I had £18.000. (I get £3 for every policy sold) however it should have read that there are 6000 cameras on our roads today!! The scheme was only launched just over a week ago so someone had a bit of poetic licence somewhere. However 'Bikerplan' is a great idea & I am sure it will be a successful one.

Another new idea is a new website called www.moto-lotto.com. This is like a sort of auction where say there is a bike for sale on the web-site, there will be 2000 tickets for sale at say 35euros each. You can pay your 35euros and you would be in with a chance of winning a new bike then you can nominate various riders which you would like the money to go to. There will also be some of my riding gear on there in the near future so you better get your wallet's out!! Finally there is www.motomortgage.co.uk this is a company who have been involved in the mortgage business with all the leading lenders for many years. The company are advertising to the motorcycling industry & for every policy they sell they will give me a fee. All of these sponsors can be found on my website.

So, onto the first of the major pre-season IRTA tests in Barcelona. We left home on Tuesday 15th March for the test on the 16th & 17th. The 125's were out on the 15th and half a day on the 16th so we both got 1 ½ days. The first noticeable change on my bike was the new fairing which has been only on factory bikes for the past two seasons but is now part of the '05 standard kit. The factory bikes now of course have a new type of factory fairing which is a lot slimmer and more pointy like the Honda fairing. Another new addition to the bike is the small sprockets and smaller chain. There is no real advantage to be gained from this just the fact that it's all a bit smaller and less drag on the engine therefore should be a bit quicker. That's my lot now I think, at least for the start of the season. Apart from that there's just been a few small alterations to the bikes livery. The main 1 being the Union Jack around the front and the new numbers. My team-mate also has the Columbian flag on the front of his bike.

For the first day I ran in new pistons as normal for the first 5 laps and feel my way around the circuit again for the first time since the GP. Some of the factory Honda and Aprilia teams had already tested at the circuit a couple of weeks before the test. The first few laps felt strange because with the new tarmac down the place felt so smooth. Usually Catalunya is really bumpy from the amount of laps that F1 do around there but it was totally different. When me and the other riders started to push down to some ½ decent times we soon noticed that even though it was a lot smoother it didn't yet have much grip. We had to alter the bike a fair bit to try and get some grip and some feel to the front end without losing too much rear grip. The last two corners at Barcelona are off camber and vital for a good lap time so the bike has got to feel good around them. We dropped the front quite a bit compared to what we would usually run. This puts more weight on the front which gives more grip and more feel through the bars but loses a bit of rear grip. We were just making small steps with the chassis for the first day and started feeling more confidant with the bike when the first day ended.

For the morning/early afternoon of the 2nd day we were still making small steps with the chassis and also with the engine. I didn't feel that the engine was going quite as well as it should be so my engine mechanic was testing a few different settings which helped a little bit.

When the sun properly broke though for the final few hours of the test I was pretty happy with the chassis and thought the engine was still so-so. For the final hour it was time to push and I was doing some consistent times compared to some of the other kit riders. At the end of the test I was 14th the 2nd kit rider with Debon 0.3 ahead of me, and the other main kit bike riders Giansanti and Jenkner a couple of tenths behind. The plan for this year is to try and win the IRTA Cup. You never really hear of this but its like the privateers cup. For sure the main rivals are going to be Debon, Giansanti, Jenkner and Guintoli. Its going to be hard to get factory bikes behind at most of the races especially at places like Catalunya with the front straight as big as it is and also Mugello etc. I think to beat the factory bikes the track is going to have to flow a bit, where one corner leads into another and where there's not many opportunities for the factory riders to be wide open. I was pretty happy with the 1st IRTA Test because we're at the sharp end of the kit bikes which is where I should and want to be.

After the 250 test I hung around in Barcelona for the next few days to watch the MotoGP and see the sun a bit because it's been a few months! I am now with a new American management company called 'The Familie', (www.thefamilie.com) who manage many sorts of 'extreme sports' athletes over in America but are now looking at getting into the MotoGP side of things. They already have a few AMA Superbike riders and many motocross/supercross riders including Travis Pastrana, Chad Reed etc. Also they manage top BMX and Skateboard riders so its cool to be involved with a company so big and who do a good job. We've had our hands bitten a few times in the past by dodgy managers who never deliver but The Familie are for sure one of the leading sports managing companies in the US and just the reputation of the people they have working for them guarantees that. So far in the MotoGP paddock me and John Hopkins are with them and looking after us is Randy Mamola, as they have employed him, because of course there doesn't get much of a better person, who knows the in's and out's of MotoGP and what it takes. Also they have employed Jamie Dobb who won the World 125cc Motocross Championship in 2001 as they think that now he's retired from MX racing he would be good at the managerial role. He's looking after me and Hopper good so far and has been a big help with sorting out leathers, helmet contracts and basically anything else that needs dealing with.

After the MotoGP test I travelled with a friend in a motor home down to Jerez early on Monday morning and arrived at Jerez Monday evening. I had Tuesday hanging about so I did the Tour De Jerez where I walked about 12kms around the streets of Jerez to try and get a better idea of the town and the roads through the town. Its actually a lot bigger than I thought it was. After my tour I went to the circuit, did a lap of the track and had a chat with the mechanics about the bike set-up for the test.

Come Wednesday Morning the weather was a bit cold at 10am when the test starts so we waited until about half 11 until we went out along with most other riders. I ran in for the first 5 laps. The track was a bit slippery for the first 2 hours because there was a some small showers overnight. We started with a setting which was pretty close to what we had when I tested there in late January. We plugged away steadily throughout the day and made a few small improvements here and there and also tested a new type of rear tyre from Dunlop which we think is going to be used quite a bit in the races this year. At the end of the day I was again top kit Aprilia but 2nd to Debon of the kit bikes. Still, I was pretty happy with the set-up and there's always more to be gained.

On the 2nd day it had rained overnight and had completely soaked the track which took ages to dry. Its strange because a circuit like Assen you can come around one lap and it's more or less completely wet and the next lap there will be a 3ft dry line whereas Jerez takes forever. It's a bit like a sponge because in a few spots on the track it doesn't seem to dry at all. I ran in the bike on a half wet track at about 12pm and it was about 1.30-2pm before me and most others went out again. Even then there was a few small patches but nothing properly wet. I was testing a few small things with the engine for the first hour because it still was a bit down on speed. At 3.30pm my chassis mechanic put the new type Dunlop rear tyre in because he wanted me to go and test the tyre and do a ½ race simulation to see how it would hold up after 10-12 laps. The tyre felt good and I was on a pretty good lap on my 4th lap. It was going to be about a late 1.45 lap time whereas the day before my fastest time was a 1.45.6. I came out of the last corner and got on the gas a bit too hard on the side of the tyre and it launched me. The rear stepped out and gripped again and threw me over the top. One of the French riders wasn't too far behind me and I was praying he wouldn't hit me and luckily he missed me by a couple of foot. I got up and off the track in a big limp because I smacked my hip pretty hard so I walked around in the gravel trap for a few minutes which helped. I also noticed my thumb was a bit sore where I bent it back on the tarmac.

The bike wasn't too badly damaged and we put the crash just down to me getting on the gas a bit too keen and possibly the rain overnight washing away some of the rubber that had been put down the day before and taking some of the grip away. The new tyre felt pretty good and we'll definitely be using it a bit this year. As soon as the bike was fixed I went back out about 4.15pm and because I didn't really have much of a lap time to show for the day as I had mainly been testing bits. My thumb was hurting a bit and after a few laps it started to feel a bit weak in the left handers and on the brakes. I went faster than I had with a 1.46.0 but didn't feel very strong so I only did about 15laps. Even though my time wasn't particularly great and I had a few more kit riders in front of me than normal, I think I still have a bit left in reserve for when It comes to the GP and that's when it matters.

After the day had finished I thought I better go to Doctor Costa's Clinica Mobile just to get my thumb checked out. The doctor in there did a few x-rays and I have a small fracture at the bottom of my thumb. They said just to give it a few days of rest and it should be no problem for the first race.

From now up to the first race I'm gonna keep the normal training ticking over and get myself ready. Casey (Stoner) has come back with me from Jerez so he will stay until the 1st GP. We're also going to go to the 1st BSB race at Brands on Monday which should be pretty interesting. The last time Casey and I were in a BSB paddock together was at Rockingham in 2001 where I was leading the race and crashed then he rode into my bike with launched him MX style into the air and consequently he lost the British 125cc Championship because of it. He wasn't laughing too much at the time but it's pretty funny when we look back on it. He says I cost him the championship and I tell him that if he'd have been a bit better at motocross he'd have been able to land it and carry on! Also I say he still owes me for the radiator that he crushed.

After the BSB I am going to stay with Shakey for a couple of days because there is a pre-GP launch for the press in the middle of London on Thursday.

That's all for now. Next time I write I'll have done the first race so hopefully it all goes well.

Chaz#57!!!!!!!!!!!!!