www.chazdaviesracing.com

Test 2 - Valencia 9th/10th February

After my first test of the season in Jerez (24th-26th Jan) I came home for about a week. As I told you in my first test report, on the Monday after I arrived home, I had round 3 at the dentist to sort out the very annoying abscess that I have had under 2 of my teeth. The normal procedure went on that I had begun to get well accustomed to. Go in, sit down, dentist pulls his drill out and starts hacking away at the filler that he used to temporarily fill the tooth, then, once that’s done he pushes some small bits down the hole in the tooth which I presumed was getting the last of the infection out and then filled it back up for the final time! That was my third trip there in the space of 2 weeks with exactly the same procedure each time. I think its fair to say I definitely don’t want to see that place for a while now. It wouldn’t be so bad but I had to keep my mouth open for at least 40 minutes which is not an easy thing to do, maximum jaw ache!

After I was done at the dentist I left straight from there to the other side of the country to go and stay with Shakey Byrne. I tied it in with going to the Ally Pally bike show so that was ideal. I stayed with Shane for a week and it was a real good laugh as always. We went to the show for three days and spent the rest of the time at his house having a big playstation competition on an MX game. I’ve got to admit he has the edge on the dirt but it’s a different story when we put MotoGP on! We did some mountain biking as well which is good for both of us. It’s funny because where he lives, it is right on the coast and the land is so flat compared to that of the Welsh hills around my house!

We both went to the Ally Pally on the final Sunday that it was on and for lunch I had a chicken/salad baguette. That night I was going to head back for home but thought the traffic in London would be a bit of a nightmare at that time so decided to stay at Shane’s 1 more night. That night we went for something to eat in London and I wasn’t very hungry which is strange for me but I had a small salad anyway. Then at about 4am the next morning I woke up feeling pretty rough very similar to when I had food poisoning at Suzuka in 2003. I was awake having hot and cold flushes for about half an hour and then I had to take a trip to the bathroom. All morning I was sick and felt absolutely drained. I didn’t eat all day and then Shane’s mum made us a roast chicken dinner which I could only muster about ¼ of and felt a bit guilty because it was very nice! The worst part was that I had to drive home that evening because I had to leave for testing at 7am the next morning. I got home at about 10pm and my mum had got a good stash of mineral replacement drinks and dextrose sweets to try and build me back up a bit. This was exactly not what I needed before testing. It’s the second time I’ve had food poisoning and I’d rather have a regular bout of flu any day of the week. Food poisoning just seems to sap any bit of energy that you’ve got and its not possible to eat because it just comes straight back up. Apart from what Shane’s mum cooked for me I then didn’t eat for about 2 days!

When we got to Jerez on Tuesday afternoon I was still feeling pretty rough and very weak. I took it easy and tried not to spend to much energy. The following day was the first day of the 2 day test. There were quite a few factory 250cc teams there, more than at our first test in Jerez. There was our team, Team Aspar with Porto and De Puniet, Team Carrera LCR with Casey and Locatelli, MS Aprilia with De Angelis and Corsi, Scot Honda with Dovisioso and Yuki Takahashi, Fortuna Honda with Lorenzo and Barbera, the French federation team with Guintoli and Leblanc and the Abruzzo team who have given Perugini the push for some reason and had Ballerini on the bike. For most of the first day until about 2pm the track had damp patches so not that many people were out which was good for me because the way I was feeling I didn‘t have much intention of going out. Me and Casey sat in our team truck for most of the day playing on the laptops! By the end of the day everybody had got a good 30-40 laps in, apart from me. We decided it would probably be better to keep building my energy levels back up and get a good day’s testing in for the following day as the forecast looked pretty good. That evening I perked up a bit and started feeling normal and had something to eat with the team.

On Wednesday morning I felt 95% and got woken up by Happy Birthday texts! It was my 18th Birthday and my Dad forgot! For the first hour I was awake I thought that he was probably just trying to make me think that he’d forgot. And then another hour went by and then I knew he’d definitely forgot! It wasn’t until we arrived at the circuit and my team manager came out of the pit box with all the mechanics singing Happy Birthday that he clicked! My team manager, Dieter, had sent my team mate as he speaks Spanish to get a cake and he got a really good one with ‘Happy Birthday Chaz’ written across it and with 18 big candles on it which was really nice.

After all of that, it was time to get down to some testing and it was a good day for it. We started at about mid-day and within 3 laps I had already done a reasonable time. At the GP last November I did a 1.37.4 in qualifying which was 10th on the grid and in the race I did between low 1.38’s-1.39. My third lap was a 1.39.3 and then my 4th was a 1.39.2. After 15 laps I had done a 1.37.5 which was quite surprising and then I did quite a few consistent laps in the 37’s. On my 29th lap I did a 1.36.7 which was again surprising. I thought it was a pretty decent lap and I quickly glanced down at my lap timer and thought it read 1.37.7 which I was a bit disappointed with because I thought I would have been quicker than that and then I had a closer look and it was a 1.36.7! That put me 4th which I was very happy about. We had a lunch break then and after lunch we decided to try the new 2005 ignition curve. I did 5 consistent laps all in the 37’s and wasn’t really looking for a lap time but it seemed to be pretty fast anyway. We spent about 10 laps then just fiddling with ignition curves and pretty much every lap was in the 37’s. For the last stint of the day we put some new tyres on and I wanted to go for a lap time. As soon as I pulled out of the pits Locatelli and Barbera were out on track and they both slowed up to tow off the back of me. I slowed right down in hope that they would push on again as I didn’t want to show them anything. They both slowed up and wouldn’t leave me alone so we were pretty much all just wasting time. This went on for two laps and then they both went for it and I gave them a couple of seconds gap so I could play cat and mouse with them! I started the first half of the next lap very well with personal best sector times and then Locatelli held me up so that lap was gone and ended up as a 37.1. The next lap went about the same but at the end I slowed right up to let Locatelli go again but Barbera just sat on my tail. My final lap was going pretty good, probably about a high 1.36 and then I had a huge moment coming out of the middle hairpin when I lost the rear and the lap ended up as a 1.37.4. All in all it was a very successful test and I was quite surprised how well it went after the drama’s of the days before. As it stands at the moment the biggest change is the new chassis. I find that I can put it in places on the track whereas my old chassis I had to really fight to get it to do what I wanted.

My next test is not until mid March which is the first of the IRTA tests and I should have some updated engine bits so there is more to look forward to. In between now and then I will be at home. Tomorrow I go to Italy for the day to get measured for M-Tech leathers and also have a mould taken for the W2 boots I will be wearing this year. I will probably go back down to Shakey’s place to get some good training done with him and hopefully get a bit of Motocross in as well.

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

Ps. Thank you to all of you that sent me birthday cards & emails.

1. Sebastian Porto 1.36.100

2. Jorge Lorenzo 1.36.110

3. Casey Stoner 1.36.144

4. Randy De Puniet 1.36.521

5. Chaz Davies 1.36.726

6. Andrea Dovisioso 1.36.765

7. Alex De Angelis 1.36.862

8. Roberto Locatelli 1.37.035

9. Hector Barbera 1.37.392

10. Yuki Takahashi 1.37.885

11. Simone Corsi 1.37.952

12. Sylvain Guintoli 1.37.980

13. Gregory Leblanc 1.38.303

14. Martin Cardenas 1.39.349

15. Andrea Ballerini 1.39.889