Chaz Davies
ello there, have you FB’ers had a good month? Up, down, then up again here for me, but at least it’s not been boring! If I remember right I checked in with you after Qatar, where we sealed second place in the championship. Almost immediately afterwards we were zoomed off back to Italy though, because the EICMA show was on and Ducati had a bunch of special kit to show off.
I was a part of their live show presentation, my own bit helping to introduce the new 959 Panigale Corse. Gotta say, and you may just expect this given I work for Ducati, but I love the paintjob on it. The matt red/white looks awesome. I don’t think the actual bike has changed a great deal bar the Öhlins suspension, but the 959 was already a pretty fly machine. And, of course, it’s still an L-twin, whereas the other big news was the introduction of the new V4 Panigale.
Contrary to many reports, I haven’t actually ridden one yet. And we won’t see the basis of the actual bike we’ll be racing in 2019, which I think will still be called the ‘R’, until sometime in 2018. Obviously the new Panigale is 1100cc, and that’s too much for WSB, so our R will be around 999cc. I would love to have a crack on the 1100 anyway, but I think the bike’s launch may clash with some testing we’re doing in late January. I’m sure I’ll get a pop soon.
Not long after it was time for our first pre-season test, the same one where we share the track with MotoGP and some BSB boys. Last year was great; we were right up there showing some of the GP guys our tails, but we did get a load of work done. This year, however, not so bueno, sadly. We had started to get down to it and I’d done around 65 laps in total before it all went Pete Tong.
Going into turn one I had a crash, and not a pleasant one either. Thank whomever for my kit being top drawer, because it could have been a hell of a lot worse. I sprained my right knee ligament pretty badly, bad enough that I couldn’t continue the test. And this is not good, as we guessed we may be up against it with the new rules. You may remember me saying last month that we had a suspicion the new rules would hurt us the most, and from this first outing, I wasn’t too far off the mark.
My lap time from the one day on race tyres was okay to be fair, and I know Ducati and my guys will give me the best package they possibly can, but even after a bunch of days in a row my team-mate Marco reckons we’ve work to do, even if what he managed to achieve was positive. Exactly as I said, others who were apparently ‘behind’ us (when I said they were already on par) have had a jump up, but our main rivals are going as quick as they ever have. So, yeah, lots more work to do in future testing, and maximum effort from me, says I!
Anyway, that was the down, but the big ‘up’ is that I finally married my best friend! We had a great stag do with the boys prior to the big day, and I’m pretty sure she had a blast on her hen do too. It was great to get friends and family together, and a lot of my Ducati family too, for a right royal knees up not far from mum and dad’s place. Some of our guests even rode there, turning up dressed like Evel Knievel with a Donald Trump mask on, the nutters! It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, now where’s my dinner, woman? Joke!
Lastly, couple of things, a sad but hearty goodbye to Nick Harris, MotoGP journo and commentator who is leaving for pastures new. He supported me a lot in my youth and has been brilliant for bike racing. And a massive well done to Andy Ibbott, I watched him on the BBC’s Employable Me and it was so good to see him doing well. He gave me my first ever proper back protector at Donington Park in 1998, right off his own back! Oh, one more thing – BJ, you missed an amazing party, you idiot (don’t remind me… – BJ)! I dunno, invite people to a do and they don’t show up – typical! Happy new year!