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British Supersport Championship 2007 – Round 2, Thruxton
Michael Laverty maintained his 100% record in this season’s Maxxis
British Supersport Championship with a hard-fought victory at a sun-baked
Thruxton circuit in Hampshire, and the Toomebridge rider even got to promote
Oakley, one of the team’s new sponsors on today’s top step.
The Relentless Suzuki rider should have been joined on the podium by team
mate Ian Lowry, but the luckless Moira man crashed out at the final chicane
on the penultimate lap after failing to avoid Tom Grant, who went down directly
in front of him. Laverty [50 points] now leads the championship by 10 points
from Jamie Robinson who made the most of the Grant/Lowry incident. Lowry
is currently in 7th place in the series with 16 points after his Brands
Hatch podium.
Michael Laverty
“I had a plan A and a plan B here today. Plan A was to try and make a break
for it early on after I got to the front, but in the end I was happy to roll
back and revert to plan B which helped me preserve my tyre. I flooded my number
one bike on the line and had to use the spare machine for the second week running
but it’s testament to the boys in the garage how well both machines are
prepared. I was comfy today behind Tom Grant and Ian; it wasn’t easy but
I rode the smart race and I’ve now taken wins at my two least favourite
circuits in the championship! Again I must thank the mechanics as the GSX–R600
Suzuki was faultless today and even though the machine was stripped after the
race, we have proved that the Relentless Suzuki team not only have fast and reliable
bikes, but legal ones as well. I was disappointed for Ian as he deserved something
from the race and I didn’t know he had gone down until I pulled in at the
end. I actually rode really defensive on the last lap as I thought both he and
Grant were still there!”
Ian Lowry
“That’s the way it goes I suppose but I can take heart from the fact
that I have the pace to run at the front with Michael and the others. I led today
for 6 or 7 laps and looking back, if I had it all to do again I think I’d
have sat back and waited. In saying that there was nothing I could do about the
crash. I didn’t get good drive out of Church and they came past but Grant
fell in front of me at the chicane and I’d nowhere to go. Second place
at least was in the bag. The Relentless Suzuki worked superbly again this weekend
and Pirelli gave us the perfect tyre combination for the race but hey… roll
on Silverstone.”
Philip Neill – Team Principal
“As Michael has already said, we didn’t get too hung up on the qualifiers
this weekend and opted to perfect our race set-up along with Pirelli and WP Suspension
which we did very well. Plan A was quickly binned and Plan B won us the race
but it’s certainly bittersweet as it could have been a one–two.
Michael again showed his class when he had to revert to the spare bike after
flooding his number one machine and as I said early today, you can’t buy
success but you can buy experience and Michael demonstrated that for the second
week on the spin.
Ian… what can I say; I’m gutted for him. He rode a superb race and
deserved his podium this weekend. Michael even commented how smooth he was when
he went to the front, but in the two races so far this year he has shown the
paddock his credentials as a regular front-runner and I’m sure we’ll
see plenty more from him as the season progresses.
I must also give a big shout to both Pirelli and WP Suspension and before the
crash involving Ian and Tom Grant it was looking like a Pirelli 1–2–3.
To have such a great start to the year is awesome and with the greatest respect
to Jamie Robinson we didn’t expect him to be sitting in behind Michael
at this stage. He got a bit of luck this week, we got it last week, but that’s
racing.”
15 April 2007