Chaz Davies will make his World Supersport debut in this weekend's Imola event, having signed to ride alongside Garry McCoy at the ParkinGO Triumph BE1 team for the remaining three rounds of the season.
The Briton campaigned uncompetitive 125 and 250GP machinery from 2002-2006 before moving to America, where he won the prestigious
Daytona 200 on a Kawasaki in 2008.
This season saw the 22-year-old - whose last appearance on the world stage was as a stand-in rider for the Pramac Ducati team during four
MotoGP rounds in 2007 - race an Aprilia RSV in the new
Daytona Sportbike category, where he took podium finishes on his way to ninth in the standings.
Crash.net spoke to Chaz on Tuesday to find out about his year to date, his thoughts ahead of his WSS debut, plans for 2010, Moto2 and more...
Crash.net:
The American season has finished now, how did things go for you this year?
Chaz Davies:
It was alright. It got better as the season went on. We got the bikes and everything quite late, but from about the midway point of the year everything began to come together. We had a couple of podiums and in the last five races we were competitive up the front, but then we were also experimenting with a lot of electronics. I ended up not finishing some of the last few races due to a few problems. Anyway, it wasn't bad all in all.
Crash.net:
So this year there was an American Superbike class and a
Daytona Sportbike class...
Chaz Davies:
Yeah. The Sportbike was a 600cc class and the Superbike class was kind of like a modified Superstock class. The bikes were fairly basic but they had some stuff you could do, like offset changes and things like that, which made them a bit more trick than Superstock. Our class was a bit strange, but it was pretty good racing.
Crash.net:
So how did the World Supersport ride come about?
Chaz Davies:
I was speaking to the guys at the end of last year. We were just talking a little bit and then I met the team boss for the first time during the US round at Miller. I started talking to him about what their plans were and all about the bike, because I knew nothing about the bike. When they realised that my AMA season was done, they thought they'd give me a try on the bike and that was it really.
Crash.net:
Then you had a test at Mugello last week?
Chaz Davies:
Ummm... not really! It was a track day. I wouldn't call it a test. I went out there mainly just to meet them and sign the contract. There was really bad weather as well.
Crash.net:
So all you could really do was adjust the positions of the controls?
Chaz Davies:
I sat on the bike and tried to get everything in place as best I could, but without riding it in the dry and riding it in anger you can't really get everything perfect. I moved a couple of things around though and got it to where it felt comfortable, so hopefully it'll help us a little for first practice at Imola.
Crash.net:
Have you ever ridden at Imola?
Chaz Davies: