2006 sees Bennetts BSB star Michael Laverty join the ever growing list of Crash.net columnists and, in his first instalment, the young Northern Irishman sets the scene by bringing us up to date on his winter activities...
This is my first of what will be a regular column this season, I'm happy to be included in the
Crash.net crew. I hope I can keep it interesting; I will try to keep the technical details to a minimum.
I suppose I should start with my plans for 2006, I'm back with the Stobart Honda team for another season, it will be my third year with the team after graduating from Supersport into Superbikes last season. I reckon I will be a lot stronger right from the off this year, staying with the Honda and the same crew in the garage, I hope the continuity will serve me well.
The team have been working hard throughout the winter on the bikes, the development process is very time consuming but we managed to have a test in December at Almeria. Unfortunately the weather wasn't that good to us, the first day was a wash out. I was a spectator for most of the day as Shakey fired himself into the gravel twice in under 10 laps, Rutter give him a bit a stick about that but he took it well.
Michael decided to go out and get a few laps under his belt to get a feel for the bike (I'm not talking about myself in the 3rd person here! I will just call him Rutter or blade from now on!) I wasn't going to go out as I felt there was nothing to gain but apparently Birdy thinks I'm crap in the wet so I went out and done a few laps to practice my wet weather ability! I hope we have a wet qualifying this year, I'm going to stick it on pole, then ask him who's crap in the wet? It's all good banter though; I'm just thinking of his wallet, it's too easy to chuck it up the road in the rain so I only push it when I have to!
Day 2 was dry at least but boy was it cold, the wind was blowing us off line in a lot of places just for good measure. The lap times were poor but we where all on the same boat, Rutter was quickest most of the day from Shakey. I was still trying to find my way around the circuit, Shakey offered me a few laps behind him to suss out the blind corners and I gladly accepted. I matched the times he and Rutter were doing and it felt comfortable. It rained again after that session so that was it for our December test, we headed home and the team went back to the workshops to continue the development of the bike.
I headed out on the annual skiing trip with my brother Eugene and a couple of mates just after the New Year and we had an awesome time, we were grabbing some major airtime this year in the freestyle area. I'm just sitting watching the Winter Olympics as I write this and I have realised the Ireland squad is in need of some representation in the Alpine skiing events, I must let them know I'm available for Vancouver in 2010! If I wasn't a bike racer I would love to be a skier no joke!
I got a couple of days at home before I was packing my bag to head for Spain again; we were headed back to Almeria for a further 3 days. The weather was kinder to us this time around although it did get colder with each day. We had a busy track this time with most of the Honda teams from the British and World Superbike championships attending. As usual Kiyo was the pace setter, Blade had warned us he was fast around the Almeria circuit having spent the previous winter trying to chase him. We had to just forget about what he was doing and get on with what we needed to do, to be fair the Michelin boys had a bit of an advantage around there.
It didn't bother me in the slightest but I think Michael was getting a bit frustrated knowing the times he was able to do around there last year on the Michelins. He ended up about 1 sec of Kiyo and Karl Harris, I was almost another second behind that again but quietly happy and content. I spent the first day and a half testing things, then just before lunch time on the second day I headed out on a new tyre and my second lap was almost a full second faster than what I had posted previously, so I thought I should get my head down for a lap to see what I could do.
