On Track Off Road No.183

Feature
Everything was looking on course to stay
with SMR during the summer but once
things start getting delayed it becomes
less secure for you. I still thought everything
looked like it was going to go
ahead but at the last minute things
changed.”
“That’s why as riders you have to understand;
you’re just a number. You can’t
take any offence from it. I understand
that Tom is a world champion. He’s been
winning races in recent years. So they
chose him. That’s all there was to it. But
I’m thankful I ended up getting something
because the only problem for me
with what happened was how late in the
day it was. That’s all it was, and it left
me in a difficult position.”
Out of that adversity Laverty has been
able to find himself on a bike that should
be a contender. The brand new Ducati V4
R is a MotoGP-derived machine. His experience
of their Grand Prix motorcycle
also gives Laverty plenty of confidence
that the WorldSBK version shares more
than a factory workshop and genesis; it
shares the same gene pool.
it tough for the rest of us to fight with
them. Braking is really strong with this
bike and we know that Chaz was always
able to brake better than the Kawasaki,
so those are the two key areas this bike
could be very strong in.”
Now it will be up to the 13 times WorldS-
BK race winner to prove that he still has
the ability, desire and confidence to fight
at the front. His return to the productionbased
championship has been below
expectations with two podiums as scant
reward. He knows that now is the time to
deliver. With Jonathan Rea having dominated
for four years, Laverty is realistic
about how difficult it will be to beat him.
Confidence is a fickle thing. It takes a
long time to come and only an instant
to drop away. It’s often said that a rider
needs to believe they’re the best to be
the best. For Laverty however, he knows
that to beat the best - and Rea is statistically
the greatest rider in WorldSBK
history - he knows that first Rea has to
realise he’s in for a fight.
“This bike has some major strengths. The two biggest
factors are how linear the engine is. It feels more like
the MotoGP engine I used a few years ago...”
“This bike has some major strengths.
The two biggest factors are how linear
the engine is. It feels more like the MotoGP
engine I used a few years ago, and
that really helps whenever you’re using
fixed gearbox ratios and you’re running
at minimum RPM in a corner. I’ve got
an engine that pulls right through the
reins. I think Kawasaki have had that
over the last few years, and that’s made
“I think that for everyone in this championship
to beat Johnny at the minute,
you’ve got to have a better bike than
he has. He’s had four years with the
same bike and the same team, he’s on
the crest of a wave. He’s not starting a
new season; he’s continuing what he’s
done for four seasons. I think that with
this Ducati we may well have a bike to
do that though. We need to get the bike