Chaz checks in: Mugello and Barcelona.

In his latest update for Crash.net, rising 250 GP star Chaz Davies reviews rounds five and six of the 2005 world championship; the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello and the Catalan Grand Prix at Barcelona - which saw the Aprilia Germany rider win the 'privateer' battle at the former, then produce 'the biggest front end save of my life' before race day mechanical disappointment at the latter...

When I got to the Mugello circuit early Thursday morning I did the usual looking through last year's data and went through where we were going to start with the set-up with the mechanics. Then Casey (Stoner) and I did a few laps on the scooters.

Normally we have pretty even scooters so it turns out in a race but as it was his team's home GP they had a heap of 500cc four-stroke Aprilia scooters, absolute beasts! You could get up to 100mph without even getting much of a run onto the main straight!

After us messing around for most of the afternoon, killing time, we went out for a pizza in the local pizzeria and then got an early night at the hotel. Them boys know how to make a good pizza!

On Friday morning the sun was well and truly out in usual Mugello style. It was pretty warm but nothing compared to 2 years ago. Then it was about 35-37? c, but now about 30ish. My team-mate, Martin, was feeling it a bit. It's weird because you'd think he'd be used to it coming from Columbia but he wasn't really, I put him at ease. I said "Wait until Qatar, then you'll sweat!"

For the first 5 laps of practice I ran in pistons and got settled in quick. Mugello is far from the easiest of circuits when you go there for the first time, but I've done a few laps around there now so it helps. The chassis felt pretty good right from the off, which is always promising, and I did a 1min 57.2secs, only 0. 3secs off my best lap from the GP last year and ended up in 13th.

For the afternoon we changed absolutely nothing on the chassis which is the first time we've done that for a while, but I knew that as the weekend went on and the faster I go the more problems occur so we would definitely not be leaving it at that.

The engine wasn't particularly strong in the morning session so my mechanic made some changes for the first qualifying. Right from the start of the session I couldn't change gear properly. It's quite difficult to explain but the 'quick shifter' we have on our bikes that allow us to keep the throttle fully on, while changing gear, wasn't working properly.

This is nothing to do with the shifter being broken but when the engine is squeezed on the carburetion for more power this seems to upset the shifter. All session I was in and out of the box but the problem wasn't going away. I was having to use my hand to change gear which costs time and also the bike was misfiring at random times. I did about 6-7 laps less than most people and finished up in 18th on a 1min 57.0secs.

On Saturday we made some changes overnight in the hope of getting somewhere with the shifter problems, but nothing really changed in the morning free practice. It was the same scenario as the day before, in and out of the box and not many laps. The frustrating thing was that there's not many times in the year when I can say from the very start of the weekend that the chassis is good, it seemed like if it wasn't one problem there was always another. I finished the session in 19th.

In the afternoon the problems improved slightly and I could now change gear but had to sacrifice changing a few hundred RPM lower than normal as this is the only way it would work.

We made a couple of very small alterations to the chassis which were for the better and I was finally able to concentrate on going fast for the first proper time in the weekend! At the end of the session I did a 1min 55.8secs, which I was a bit disappointed to be in 17th on the grid with, but the times were very close, only half a second to 10th and 0.8secs to the second row of the grid.

Also I knew that people like Ballerini and Baldolini did 1 lap with a tow which is worth 1/2 a second down a straight that size easily. Also Ballerini was on pole at Mugello in the 125s three-years ago so he knows the place pretty well.
Sunday morning warm-up was easy going as normal. I ran in new pistons for 4 laps and then just checked everything was as it should be. I did a 1min 57.0secs with a full tank of fuel and old tyres so I was feeling pretty good for the race.

I was quite confident for the race, the only thing that I was slightly concerned about was getting off the line well. I did a practice start in warm up which wasn't too good because the clutch was very rough, but it was a new one. I was nervous before the race, I ought to be used to it by now but it's the same every time!

I didn't get the good start that I was hoping for. Again the clutch was very rough and jerky. Luckily not that many people did get good starts because the 1st gear is very tall at Mugello. I made up a couple of places in the first few corners and at the end of the first lap I was 17th.

On lap 3 I passed Smrz, Guintoli and Giansanti to get up to 14th - and on lap 4 I passed Ballerini and Baldolini. I tried to break away from them and stay with Aoyama and Takahashi on the factory Hondas but they were just a few tenths per lap too fast.

I equalled my qualifying lap for two laps running early in the race but wasn't able to break the group. There are so many kit riders who are all riding together this year so it's important to try and break the group up as much as possible so there's only a few in the group rather than 6 or 7.

I couldn't pull away from the group and on lap 8 when Guintoli passed me I was just going to sit behind him for a few laps to see what he could do. Smrz also came by at the start of lap 11 and that was as far back as I wanted to be in the group because I didn't want to let anybody get away.

I was comfortably following Smrz and Guintoli when Smrz made a dodgy move and clipped the back of Sylvain and took them both down. I was quite lucky not to hit either of them and snapped on the brakes quick to avoid Sylvain's bike and locked the front wheel for a split second.

Surprisingly, nobody past me and I led Ballerini and Giansanti for the next 5 laps doing mid 57s but not pulling anything on them. With 5 laps to go I let Ballerini past to see what he had but he couldn't lead. The pace dropped from mid 57s to mid 58s as soon as he was at the front.

With 3 laps to go I went back to the front again and purposely didn't push as hard as I could to try and lead them into a false sense of security, quite tactical! I did Ballerini's pace that lap and did a mid 58. With two laps to go I put the hammer down to try and catch them out and did two laps in the low 57s.

At the start of the last lap I had 0.4secs over Andrea and was giving him no chance to pass. I made a mistake mid way through the last lap which cost me a few tenths and I was kicking myself for it, but pushed hard right up to the flag and got 10th. I was happy with that because it's nice to beat a couple of Italians on their home soil and also it was a good hard fight - I was bearing the war scars after!

There was a big black rubber mark just above my right knee slider, marks on the front of my bike and - on the rear where the bike goes on the stand - the metal lugs that the stand goes under were snapped off, leaving a big hole in the carbon fibre swing arm. The carbon cover over the exhaust was also broken! Proper carnage!

The team were also pleased with the result. It's also good for the privateer championship as neither Debon or Guintoli finished, so I gained some points back on them.
On Monday I left the circuit in the afternoon with Shakey (Byrne) and his friend Wag in his motor home. Shakey had already pre-booked the ferry from Genova to Barcelona and asked me if I wanted to come with him so I jumped on the band wagon. You're always guaranteed a good laugh with Shane, and his mate Wag is pretty out of control so it was highly amusing!

My team-mate, Martin, rang me on Tuesday night and asked me if I wanted to go Supermoto riding the following day so I took him up on the offer. I was up pretty early Wednesday morning and met Martin. We then went to meet a bunch of his mates and then loaded up his bike, a Suzuki RMZ450, and headed for a track about 1 hour away.

The weather was seriously hot and the circuit looked very cool. I'm only used to riding on my dad's track, which is quite a bit different, so it was a nice change for me. Martin and I shared his bike and were doing pretty similar times. The track had a really good layout, but it was quite slippery and bumpy compared to my dad's. We rode for about 4-5 hours and we were all pretty stuffed by the end of the day.

On Thursday I did some laps around the track with Casey again, and an Italian TV commentator was racing us! Two years ago he turned up in the paddock on crutches and in casts from head to toe! He broke his leg in two places, arm, collarbone and some other stuff that I don't remember in a scooter crash and after riding with him we could see why!

After looking over last year's data and the data from the test here, it was time to head to the hotel and get an early night.

On Friday morning things started well. After running in new pistons I quickly got back into the track and on my 8th lap did a 1min 49.7secs which equalled my best time from testing. That seemed like a pretty good lap but to go faster I needed more feeling in the front because it was very vague.

We made quite a few changes but it wasn't really making much difference and I did another two 1min 49.7s, but that seemed to be about the limit before the front was tucking and I was picking it up off my knee.

Then, with about 15-minutes to go, I had the biggest front end save of my life and in a corner where I wasn't really expecting it! It was tucking in all of the faster corners on the track but on this lap, in the middle of the 5th corner - the tight hairpin left - it well and truly tucked.

In the middle of the corner, just as I was about to get on the gas, it folded and I was on my knee for, no joke, about 10-meters and then it just came back and I picked it up with my heart in my mouth!

The next lap when I came around there was a huge black line from it, right the way from the middle of the corner to the end. I was hoping that somebody would have got it on camera as I'm sure it would have been equally as impressive as that picture of McWilliams on the Proton 500 when he's just about on his elbow and saved it! I was proud!

By the end of the session I never improved on a 49.7secs as that was the limit before it was tucking everywhere, but I was confident that we could go pretty quick when we found the right settings. I finished up 15th.

That afternoon in hospitality, Casey and I were eating and talking about how the session went. He said he was also not getting a lot of feeling to the front. I said "Yeah me too, you should have seen my save at the left hairpin, it was a beast". He said "Holy shit was that you!? I saw the big ol' black line there and thought whoa someone's had a big near highside!" I said "No that was the front!". He said "Shit, you're joking!!"

In the afternoon session we made a few slight adjustments to try and help the vagueness but it changed it very little. We dropped the front end of the bike which brings it closer to me and gives me a little more feeling but the tucking was worse.

I did a 1min 49.4secs and had many other front end losses (not as big as the morning!) and finished the session in 17th. After a big de-brief with my chassis mechanic we decided that we would go the opposite way for the following day and take weight off the front. I was using the hard front tyre and only getting 8 laps out of it which is very unusual.

On Saturday morning I immediately felt the change. I had more feeling in the front and didn't seem to be losing the front half as often as I was the day before. The engine was also running ok and didn't seem to be having the shifter problems of Mugello so that was good.

In the last 15-minutes I did 7 laps all in the low 49s and felt like I could have done more had they not put the flag out. On my last lap I did a 1min 49.0secs and finished up in 13th and pretty confident for the afternoon. Also the hard front tyre was now lasting more than 8 laps and looking much better after, without the big tear strip around it.

In the afternoon qualifying session the ground temperature had gone up quite a lot. The problem we were having on Friday returned with the heat and seemed to have lost all grip in the front and had the bouncing feeling come back.

I struggled for the first 15 minutes of the session and came in to the box because the heat had seemed to completely throw our settings. We went more in the direction of what we did from Friday to Saturday and this improved the feeling but only slightly. My last 3 laps were a 1min 49.1secs then two in the 1min 49.0s.

That was only very slightly quicker than the morning and it felt like I had to push a hell of a lot more for the same time - and had a much worse feeling come with it. I was pretty disappointed because just when you think you've got a good setting in the morning, it's totally different in the afternoon. I thought in the afternoon a mid 1min 48secs should have been possible. I was 15th on the grid.

For Sunday morning warm-up we made a couple of tweaks but it was difficult to tell how much different it was going to be from 9.00am to 12.15 and race day was pretty hot. The setting felt so-so but with it being morning warm up there is no drastic changes that can be made as it's a risk unless you're sure it will work. I was 16th fastest in the morning.

For the race I had to make a decision whether to use the hardest rear tyre that we have or the just hard tyre. I had done most of the weekend using just the hard tyre so I decided quite late to stick with what I knew and went with it. And the 8 laps in the low 1min 49secs on Saturday morning were with this tyre and it felt pretty good then. We had made some adjustments to the clutch since Mugello also and all of the practice starts I was doing were pretty good.

My start in the race was also good and in my first few laps I made up good ground just off the back of the factory bikes and at the head of the kitted bikes. At the end of lap 1 I was 13th and on lap 4 I passed Giansanti and Takahashi. De Puniet had also crashed so I was up to 9th and just following Guintoli.

But already I didn't feel comfortable with the bike, even though I was going forward. The front was not tucking, but bouncing as it had the day before and making it difficult to stay on line mid-corner and also the grip on the rear felt fairly minimal right from the start.

On lap 6, I passed Guintoli up to 8th and thought 'we'll if I'm going forward then other people must be having the same sort of problems as well'. Then in the next 2 laps it all got worse. When I tried to open the gas mid corner the rear was sliding easily and I started to lose ground and get passed by the other 5 kit riders behind me.

Debon past me on lap 10 and almost squeezed me into the gravel which lost me a good second and let Locatelli through. Also he apparently was the cause of Ballerini's crash so there'll be a lot of riders out for revenge in Assen...

I couldn't keep up the pace of Guintoli and Takahashi who were now at the head of the battle. I was doing high 1min 49secs/1min 50secs where as before the race I thought I could do mid 1min 49secs consistently.

For the next 10 laps I was still about 1/2 a second too much on the group in front and that was as much as I could do. Then from lap 15 onwards my engine started to behave quite strange and wouldn't rev now and again. At the start of lap 20 just as I notched up into top gear going down the start/finish straight the engine again cut out and this time definitely didn't want to come good - and then it seized up, so I quickly pulled the clutch in.

A post mortem on the engine showed that somehow a bit of the rubber carburettor seal had broken off and worked it's way into the float bowl and was blocking up the main jet so in turn there was no fuel coming through and they don't like that much!

Obviously the whole team were disappointed along with me. The race started really well and unfortunately as the race went on it showed that we didn't come across the right set-up in qualifying and we started to fade. At best I'd have scooped a few points but realistically we should have been still in contention for around 8-10th position. Looking at my rear tyre after the 20 laps I did it looked pretty well spent.

So we've got to look forward to Assen which I am looking forward to. Unfortunately Guintoli and Debon gained quite a few points over me so we need to make a mends from the next race.

In other news, I've finally got myself a road bicycle after many months of researching so a big thanks to Brian from Yellow for helping me out with that.

This weekend I have my first race called the Shropshire Highland Challenge; Guintoli is coming down from where he lives in Leicester to race in it so we're going to have to work together for a change!

It's 71.5 miles so were going to have to bide our time and be patient and then see how we feel in the last 20 miles and then attack! It should be fun. Wish us luck and I'll tell you how I get on after Assen.

Chaz#57