The report was written in the run-up to this weekend's Laguna Seca event - when Chaz was due to ride only in the Supersport race, supporting the US Grand Prix. However, on Friday afternoon, the 20-year-old was offered a dream chance to make his MotoGP debut, replacing the injured Alex Hofmann at d'Antin Ducati.
The Briton will thus ride in his first MotoGP race on Sunday - expect a full report from Chaz in the near future...
Since my last 'check in' I’ve divided my time with being both in America and at home.
At the end of my last column I finished up just after Fontana. From Fontana we loaded up the truck and headed for a circuit called Miller in Utah where we set to do a 'Riding to Save Lives' charity event and then a 2 day Yamaha test which was a good chance for me to get my first laps around the track.
Our route to Utah took us from Southern California, through Nevada and then up into Utah which was going to take us about 15 hours. As my mechanic, Mark, put it - "You can’t go through Nevada and not go to Vegas!". So, that was it, we stopped off in Las Vegas for the night and I got my first taste of what it’s all about. I am a dangerous man when it comes to slot machines and could spend hours on them so I had to be hard on myself before we went into the main Casino strip.
I told myself that I have $100 (£50) to spend and that was my lot. After dabbling in few different places my mechanic and I both found our spot for the night in the MGM Grand Casino. We both happened to get a bit lucky on a 'Wheel of Fortune' machine where I got $80 and Mark got around $100. That was it, the greed took over and we were both in search of more of the same! Needless to say we put all our money straight back into the slots and got no more glimmers of the big payout. But anyway, it was good fun and I think I definitely played it the right way with giving myself a maximum budget otherwise I could have found myself with completely empty pockets!
