Michael Laverty was left clutching positives from his
Mallory Park weekend despite coming away from the two races with just an 11th place finish.
The Ulsterman was aiming high after qualifying a superb second on the grid on the Relentless Suzuki and looked good form over the course of the first race by running in that position quite comfortably.
However, when Leon Haslam made a move at the hairpin, Shane Byrne attempted to follow through and the two came together, losing them time. Although Laverty was able to catch the leading pack in fourth place, he had been forced to push his tyres in the process, a fact that eventually told on the penultimate lap when he lost his front-end at Edwina's whilst trying to pressure Tom Sykes.
Although he rejoined, Laverty would eventually cross the line a frustrated 11th, a result he admits he was ‘gutted' with.
“I made a good start and I was running second for a little while, but Leon came up the inside and as I went to square back up the inside, Shakey hit me and I lost a few seconds,” he explained to
Crash.net Radio.
“By the time I made the ground back up, I had worked my tyre quite hard, but I was confident I could do something. So I was pushing to get Tom Sykes at the end, but I was pushing a little bit too hard and it folded on me. I was gutted, because I had fifth in the bag but I wanted fourth.”
Looking to make amends in the second race, Laverty reacted to the adverse weather conditions by running a wet front tyre and an intermediate rear. With confidence to push early on, Laverty swept into the lead and proceeded to act as the rabbit for the pack to chase.
Quickly establishing a five second lead, Laverty never got the chance to find out if he'd have been able to hold on in drying conditions when he experienced an almost identical fall to that of the first race. With TV cameras showing him hitting and kicking his bike in a bid to get going again, it was ultimately to no avail and he was forced to retire.
