Laverty column: Strange weekend.

In the latest of his exclusive columns for Crash.net, Stobart Honda's Michael Laverty tells us about a tough weekend at Thruxton...

Hello race fans - difficult weekend for us and no doubt, this is what happened.

It was a strange weekend for us right from first practice, we really struggled with getting the bike to work round Thruxton and we just never really put our finger on the cause or the cure. It's been tough for the riders and the mechanics and it has just been a disheartening weekend really. At the end of the day we feel it is more of a bogey circuit than it is a bike problem. I think we had a strong package in the first few races and then came to Thruxton and nothing really worked for us. It's been tough it's just been survival and bagging a few points. It is definitely not the way we had planned the weekend to go as I was on a real high after Donington.

Thruxton is quite unique in the high speed bumpy corners. Being an old airfield it is really grippy and quite bumpy. It is such a strange place to ride round, on a smaller bike it is not bad but round here on the Superbike it spins and grips everywhere and just upsets the bike. Actually in the race I wasn't able to go down the straights on full throttle as my bike was going into tank slappers so bad. It was a tough weekend and just not enjoyable to ride, but that is the way it is. We struggled last year with the Honda too and we thought considering the bike had so much improved it would work ok at Thruxton but it just didn't work at all from first practice to the last race it was a struggle.

At least we have now got it out of the way and I can look forward to Oulton Park in two weeks time. Oulton is quite a normal circuit, it has got a few rises and stuff but it is nothing like Thruxton, few circuits are! I don't think we will have a bike problem there and hopefully we can pick up where we left off at Donington and just forget about this meeting - put it to the back of our minds. We've got the test at Oulton this coming Friday so I'm looking forward to just riding round there and getting back to normal and the bike working the way it should do and just getting my confidence back really.

Both my brothers did really well this weekend, especially Eugene who won the Supersport race. It was brilliant. Eugene has been third in the first two rounds and then to win is just fantastic. I actually won my first Supersport race round Thruxton as well so he has done a carbon copy of me a few years later. Good for him and it will do his confidence the world of good now. I think he is only four points off the championship lead now and he seems to be riding comfortable every weekend. I think if he can stay on that kind of pace he can fight it out for the championship and it would be fantastic if he could win it at the end of it. I'm well impressed with him and John as well got fourth on track in the Superstock. He got bumped up to third as Howie Mainwaring was penalised by twenty seconds for a flag infringement and careless riding. John was struggling a bit at the start of the weekend and he put it together well.

I was out on track straight after the 'Stock race so I only caught it at a glance every now and again. It looked tough; there were a few fallers and five or six of them at the front. It was a good race, and good to see John getting some points in the bag too. The only one who didn't find the answer to Thruxton was me.

I haven't been home since before Donington so it is back up to Wales again to spend a few days there. Pick up some furniture for our new place - you know normal house hold things. Then I'm back down to Oulton on Thursday afternoon to test on Friday and hopefully be on better form there.

Cheers,

Michael