In 2018, Eugene Laverty was riding the
the Shaun Muir Racing squad. When SMR
switched from Aprilia power to BMW for
2019 and bought in Sykes and Reiterberger
to fill the seats, it left Laverty with little
time to secure a ride for the new season.
Credit to him for sticking at it, the reward
has been a ride with Go-Eleven on the
Ducati V4R.
The Monday and Tuesday before race
weekend at Phillip Island were the final
test days for the teams ahead of the
season kicking off at the same venue. For
these, Laverty was sporting plain fairings
and the only set of leathers that could be
seen from outer space. For race weekend
he went with a more traditional set of
sponsor decked leathers but the flouro
test days outfit certainly was a fashion
statement.
Eugene walked away from PI in 10th place
on the ladder scoring finishes in both full
length races and the new-for-2019 Tissot
Superpole sprint race on Sunday morning.
This put him equal on points with Sykes
and 5 places ahead of Reiterberger, the
riders who replaced him at SMR.
Coming in to the first round of the 2019 season at Phillip Island and given the results from pre-season testing, four-time WSBK champion
Jonathan Rea looked well placed to continue his run of success, but Alvaro Bautista shook up the status quo big time winning all three
races on the Aruba.it works Ducati V4R.
It is worth remembering however that Rea was beaten by Melandri in both races at Round 1 in 2018 but was still able to take out the
championship comfortably because of his sheer consistency. The margin of Bautista’s wins at Phillip Island were significantly greater than
Melandri’s in 2018 and the Ducati V4R clearly is a more advanced beast than the V-Twin that Melandri was riding last year but still, Round
1 is only Round 1.