In the latest of his exclusive columns for Crash.net, Stobart Honda’s Michael Laverty gives us his side of the eventful first two rounds of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.....
Hi everyone, welcome to my latest up date from the BSB paddock.
I can’t believe how bad the weather has been for the first two rounds, but it is good to get them out of the way and see the progress that myself and Michael Rutter are making along with the Stobart Honda team.
Lets go all the way back to race one at Brands, seems like ages ago now. We had a poor qualifying which was no fault of my own, and I got stuck on the fourth row and was eleventh or twelfth off the start. I struggled to get through a few people, and then I got stuck behind Shane Byrne on the Rizla Suzuki. His bike was slightly faster than mine so it was hard to get past; however I still felt I was faster than him so I had to be happy with seventh in the end.
Everyone is expecting a lot from Shakey so it is nice to be racing with him, former Grand Prix star and all that, but I felt I had the beatings of him only the race was stopped early when Leon Haslam high sided at Paddock. I wanted past earlier to go after Johnny Rea and Kiyonari, I felt I had two or three tenths left in me. I was a bit disappointed not to get through to fight for a top five position but it was a good enough race.
