In his latest of his exclusive Crash.net columns, Chaz Davies talks about the disappointment of missing out on an Ilmor MotoGP test and recounts his first encounter with the legendary Daytona International Speedway....
Hello everybody. It hasn't been too long since my last 'check in', but I thought I ought to let you know how my first proper stateside test went. However, before I talk about that, I'll fill you in what happened with the Ilmor test.
On the Monday of the Jerez MotoGP test, we spoke to Mario Illien, the boss of Ilmor. He said to come down to Jerez as they were testing on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Straight away, I was on the case and trying to find a flight out from the UK to Jerez, but there was nothing as it was too late. I had to wait until the following day when I got a flight out of Stansted directly into
Jerez.
The day we arrived, it had been raining all day, so there was hardly any testing done by anybody. Also, Jerez has the same characteristics as a sponge in the way it holds its water. It takes absolutely ages to dry as the water continuously seeps back up through the tarmac. If the sun is out all day, then you might be lucky if it dries completely.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Ilmor had a lot of work to do from the lack of track time they got on Tuesday. Having 'McWill' and all his experience in the team has been guiding them in a good direction and given them a lot of things to work on because he knows exactly what he wants and which direction things need to go. And for this reason they are flat-out all day working in all sorts of areas with the bikes! To intervene on their work in the middle of a busy day wouldn't have been a particularly good idea and neither would it be very productive for them.
