Croft British Superbikes: Michael Laverty not finding side grip

Talented Relentless Suzuki superbike representative Michael Laverty couldn’t quite solve a gearing problem he’d had all weekend with his GSX-R1000 at Croft, and a lack of side grip only worsened the Irishman’s round.

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After race one MCN caught up with Laverty who said: “I got a good start but although we made some changes in the Warm-Up session this afternoon to improve the feel of the bike, it was still very difficult.

“I still couldn’t push as hard as I’d like – I felt like I could only ride to 90 per cent.

“The bike didn’t feel right on the bumps here at Croft and the harder I rode it the worse the problems with feel got.

“We’ve struggled with a good gearing pattern all weekend – it’s worked through the first part of the lap but isn’t quite right for the later stages of this circuit.

“We’ll try to change the chassis a bi for race two because I’m also getting very little grip from the side of the tyre at the moment.”

Unfortunately for Laverty any changes made didn’t have much of an affect on hi result as he scored a tenth in race two to sit alongside his seventh in the opening 20-lap race.

“In race two I had a real problem with traction,” said Laverty.

“With the traction on it didn’t feel like the bike was pushing forward – it was a bit like riding a 600 again.

“Every time I opened the throttle the traction control cut in and that ruined the second race for me.”