Mallory Park British Superbikes: Two DNFs don’t dampen Michael Laverty’s spirits

Despite not finishing either of the weekend’s British Superbike races at Mallory Park, Michael Laverty said he was taking something positive away from the race weekend.

The reigning British Supersport champion put his Relentless Suzuki second on the grid in qualifying on Saturday and crashed in both races running up front.

Laverty dropped his Suzuki at Edwina’s on both occasions, the second time around while leading the race.

“I was a bit pissed off after crashing in race one,” said the Ulster man. “I nearly crashed early on when me and Shakey [Shane Byrne] came together at the hairpin.

“Haslam ran wide in front of me and I tried to square him off and get up the inside. The next thing I knew Shane hit me – I’m not sure what he was thinking being there?

“Then we all got held up behind Martin Jessopp – he just didn’t get out of the way. I had to shout at him to get him out of the way.

“I was desperate to make up for lost time and got myself a little flustered and crashed the next lap trying to catch up with the four guys in front of me.”

Laverty didn’t have any better fortunes in race two either, crashing out on lap three whilst leading on wet tyres.

“I had to give it a go in race two,” added Laverty. “I had a hard wet front and an intermediate rear so I wanted a 15 or twenty second lead in the damp conditions before it started drying out.

“The front would have been mushy at the end of the race, but it was the right tyre decision for the first 15 laps.

“Obviously I didn’t get that far though, losing the front again at Edwina’s pushing too hard to extend the gap to second.

“The handlebar bent upward and was parallel with the screen, so I had to punch it back into place. My hand started hurting though so I decided to stick the boot to it.

“The bar then started rubbing against the fairing, so I pulled in on the same lap.

“Although we didn’t finish we were up at the front with the factory boys and that’s where we want to be.”