Rumblings from the Laguna Seca paddock

The silly season started for real at Laguna and looks set to gather pace as WSB enters it’s long eight week summer break. Aprilia man Sylvain Guintoli, both Kawasaki Racing Team Riders and Pata Honda’s duo have all yet to be signed up and current Voltcom Suzuki rider Eugene Laverty may even be brought back into the Aprilia fold if they still have a full factory team in 2015.

Aprilia may well enter MotoGP one year earlier than in 2016 as planned, but they would still like to keep an official, or factory-supplied satellite team fighting at the top of WSB next year.

Eugene Laverty’s team made a serious change to his rear suspension settings to avoid the rear end drop that had been affecting him and he felt it was the breakthrough he had been looking for all year.

In a nasty crash that halted one of the attempts at race two, Sylvain Barrier exited turn 11 and then went into the trackside stone barriers opposite pitlane feet first. Only recently back from injury the horrible looking crash ended up with a compression fracture of his left foot where it joins the ankle and a severe beating.

Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) had a real scare when he had to jump off his bike at 150mph in morning warm up as it entered turn one. No reason was given but brake failure seemed the only possible scenario. His bike was snapped in two by the crash.

Lowes was involved in another crash that ended the other attempt at running race two, when he outbraked himself into the left at the top of the Corkscrew – and was spat off hard for the second time in a few hours, hurting but not fracturing his left ankle.

Chaz Davies was not allowed to start race two after his heavy fall in race one from a front row starting place. He had taken a head knock that the local doctor sad was too severe, although Davies wanted to ride in any case.