In part two of his latest exclusive column for Crash.net Chaz Davies reviews his test with the Ducati MotoGP team at Mugello, watched by friend and future world champion Casey Stoner - and reveals just how fast he lapped.
In part three, Chaz explains the unexpected consequences of his arm injury, which he carried throughout the AMA season finale, then considers his future options - including the chance of riding for d'Antin Ducati in the final rounds of the 2007 MotoGP season...
During the weekend at Road Atlanta I was in constant contact with Livio Suppo from Ducati. Since the Laguna GP there has been quite a lot of talk about me, firstly racing in Brno, which came very close to happening but didn‘t. And then after that it again came very close for me to be racing in Misano if Hofmann wasn’t fully recovered.
On the Monday before Misano, Hofmann said he was ready to ride so there was no possibility there. Then Livio said "OK, let's forget trying to race, we’ll see if we can get you on a test". From there I had an email off Livio telling me that he could get me in on one of the Official Test Team tests at Mugello on 11th and 12th September.
I agreed to it straight away which meant that I had to get a flight home from America. I flew home on Wednesday, giving me about five days to get back into home timezone before heading out to Italy.
We had our customary nightmare trip to Stansted Airport. I had planned it so I could meet Hattie at her Granddad’s house near Heathrow in the afternoon, as she was just back from Thailand. Luckily my dad and I left in plenty of time so that we could do this as our car broke down on the M25, shortly after smoking out half of London!
