In his latest update for Crash.net, rising 250GP star Chaz Davies talks about his 'eventful' first test with his new-for-2006 Campetella team - which took place earlier this week at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona...
It’s been a long wait but finally I’ve been back on a 250 after 4 months off. Since my last update a couple of months ago not a great deal has happened! I’ve just been waiting for a call to confirm when our first test was going to be and unfortunately it’s all happening a bit later than expected but at least I’ve been back on a bike.
I arrived in Barcelona on Monday night, so I had all of Tuesday to get to know my new team, Team Campetella, and learn the 20 odd Italian names of all our 125 and 250 mechanics… no easy task! Due to some unexpected complications the bike that I was testing, was not the bike that I was due to be riding this season.
The bike that I was due to have is called the Aprilia 250 LE. Basically, this bike is the factory bike from the start of last year, so it doesn’t have all the updates that were added to last year's factory bikes throughout the season but, nevertheless, it’s a very good package.
Before I flew to Barcelona I already knew that the bike I would be testing would not be what I expect to be racing this season. My team-mate, Taro Sekiguchi (who also rode for Campetella last year) and I are both due to be riding the LE Aprilia this season and we will have one ‘kit’ Aprilia between us as a spare bike.
At the test, Taro was given the ’06 kit, which includes the full engine kit and the carbon fibre swing-arm whereas my bike was what my Dad nicknamed the ‘Bitsa’, meaning made up of bits! It had about 85% of the ‘kit’ engine parts and I was using the standard aluminium swing-arm, so I was at an immediate disadvantage, but the most important thing was to get some kilometres in, and re-ignite all the riding muscles that have been out of action for the last 4 months.
