After turning his back on uncompetitive machinery in the 250cc World Championship, the 20-year-old has revived his career in the AMA Supersport and Formula Xtreme championships this season - then was propelled into the MotoGP spotlight when d'Antin Ducati asked the Briton to replace the injured Alex Hofmann at Laguna Seca.
Davies made his surprise MotoGP debut on Friday afternoon and qualified 1.8secs from pole position just 24 hours later. Although forced to pit during the race, Chaz completed an impressive debut by setting a best lap time only 1.2secs behind race winner Stoner - putting him on a par with Fiat Yamaha's
Colin Edwards and just a tenth behind d'Antin regular Alex Barros.
"The test is going to be at Mugello next week, on the 11th and 12th. I'm looking forward to it; it'll be really exciting," said Chaz during an exclusive interview with
Crash.net. "I wasn't digging for a test. Livio Suppo, the boss of the factory Ducati team, was fairly happy with what I did at Laguna and obviously I know Casey quite well. I think Casey put in a good word here and there and that sort of spurred them on to give me this test, just to see how I get on at a big circuit like Mugello - which has fast, wide open, sweeping corners - rather than Laguna which is pretty tight and twisty.
"I was thrown in at the deep end at Laguna, it doesn't get much deeper!" Chaz continued. "That was just a hectic weekend as I had AMA Supersport to concentrate on as well as
MotoGP. This test will be a nice way to really learn the bike. As far as I know it's going to be an open track with just myself and Vito Guareschi, the official Ducati test rider. It'll be good for me to really get to grips with the bike, know what it's all about, see how much trust I can put in it and ultimately see how fast I can go."
The test will have extra significance because Pramac d'Antin, Ducati's satellite MotoGP team, still has both its seats available for 2008.
