Spiked

SPIKED talk to Ducati rider - John Laverty

John, good to talk to you, how’s things?

Good thanks, just returned from a trip to Australia, was out there for just over a week to do some racing, just back now and managed to pick up a cold. Got plenty of time to get rid of it though before I get back on the bike, I guess I won’t be back on the bike before February or March next year. Being the off-season now it’s a case for the teams and ourselves to finalise what we are doing for next year.

Regarding the season that has just finished you had quite a successful year, winning the superbike cup, are you pleased overall with the way things went?

Definitely, we weren’t intending on doing that championship, it was a last minute decision, we were originally planning on doing the superstock championship for Ducati, but at the last minute the bike wasn’t allowed to do that series, so we had to go into the superbike championship instead.  We had to compete on a superstock machine so we weren’t up to the level of everyone else, but we were able to be competitive and went out and won the first two races. We managed to keep that form going all season and had the championship wrapped up with a few rounds to go. So hopefully that will set us up for a similar season next year, there are still things to be decided by the team but hopefully that’s what will happen.

I suppose winning with a few rounds to go lets you have a relaxing end to the season?

We intended having a run on the proper superbike, one of Michael Rutters at the last round at Brands Hatch, but as we weren’t entered in the championship it wasn’t allowed. So we had to wait until the superbike season was over and entered a race back home in Ireland, so I managed to get a run on the bike there. Myself and Michael Rutter entered that and he won and I came in second, so that definitely pleased the sponsors in a big way and they really want try and make it happen next year with the two of us both on the same bikes.

Does winning the cup put you in a better position with regard to a deal next year?

Yeah, the superbike championship was a good one to win, it turned out better than I could have imagined, and I think the factory boys were a bit surprised, it lets them know what you could be doing if you had the right machinery. We had some good results really, in the last race we were pushing as high as eighth place on a non-factory bike.

Tell us a bit about the differences between the bike you ride and the factory bikes.

The superbike championship is full of factory bikes, that are the best that comes out of the Suzuki, Honda, or Ducati factories, there prepared in house as such, it’s not the average kind of joe bloggs road bike. The Ducati is prepared in Italy and sent directly from there with bits added that can’t be bought after market. The bike which I rode this year can be bought from the showroom with a few bits added on here and there to bring it up to superbike spec. The difference really comes down to the technology which Ducati have, there’s a big difference in electrics on my bike and Michael Rutters. Rutters has programmable ignition, traction control, launch control, all this data can be kept on a database so it’s a big advantage to able to play with this. That’s where the few tenths of a second per laptime comes from. My bike just didn’t have that and that makes it extra hard to ride, it comes down to the rider to work more with the throttle, and sometimes that goes wrong and it bites back and hurts. With the electronic package it knows not to give a hundred percent throttle when the bikes at a certain angle of lean, so it’s an ongoing battle as such and our bikes are all up to the rider himself. I guess over a whole race you’re talking about a second a lap, so about a twenty second difference over race distance. That technology is the difference between us and the top fifteen I suppose.

That must be frustrating for you knowing you can’t get those couple of tenths but potentially you can beat the riders in front of you.

Definitely. When I rode the superbike back at home it showed me what an advantage the guys in front of me had, it wasn’t really apparent to me until I experienced it myself. I was thinking this is the way it should be and you realise how you were struggling against other bikes.

You touched on it earlier how you finished off the season with a couple of races back home in Ireland and Australia, how did all that go?

It was brilliant to ride on the factory superbike for the NW200 team, myself and Rutter both had a spin on them, it was my first time on the bike, we couldn’t have asked for it to go any better, I mean out qualifying Michael Rutter who had the bike all season showed me what I could do on that bike. Then we went on to Australia, it was a fun race, the Australian champion was there and some other Aussie riders, Carl Harris from BSB and my brother Michael from the BSB as well, they were both front runners in the British championship this year. I was able to beat them both when we were on  production bikes like I was riding in the superbike cup championship. It was what I was used to racing so they didn’t have all their electronics and I was able to have the better of them come race day. I finished second in the first race behind the Australian superbike champion and won the second race and then it was down to the last race for the overall win which I lost by half a second, I think I surprised them hopping on a Honda as they weren’t able to supply me with a Ducati at he last minute. So I had a new bike racing a track I’d never seen before and was able to beat the Aussie champion, Carl Harris and my brother Michael so I was over the moon really. So it was a really strong finish to the season, and I hope I’ve done myself justice and it helps me get the ride I want next season.

 

 

How was your cup win received in Ireland, was there plenty of interest from the media?

Yeah the end of the season always brings about different dinners and presentations and sporting awards. I have heard a rumour that I’m up for quite a few different awards, I’ve had a good strong season and I’m looking forward to that. The guy I was out in Australia with is the editor of Irish Racer magazine and over a few drinks he was tipping me for a few awards so we’ll just have to wait and see come the time. It would be nice to lift a few of those because racing in the UK and not at home it’s easy to get forgotten about. The invitational race myself and Rutter did at the end of the season was the first time I’d ridden at home for four years. It was nice to give a good account of myself at home. It was all over the newspapers and on the six o’clock news which was nice, and we had good tv coverage this year as well.

I guess it’s a bit of time off now and then what, back in training?

We just mess around on our trials bikes really this time of year, just to stay on some sort of bike really. We don’t testing really until next February time in Spain where there’s a bit of heat. I guess really it’s just about keeping your general fitness up and staying in shape, I do a lot of cycling.

What other training do you do I imagine a superbike takes a bit of hanging on to?

Yeah they definitely do, with myself I’m not too bad, I don’t carry a lot of weight, if your heavier the power to weight ratio becomes an issue and then your fighting the bike and the G forces under braking trying to hold back fourteen or fifteen stone , where as I’m only around ten and a half stone so I don’t have that problem. Some people say, look at the size of your arms compared to so and so, but I say look at the weight on is body. So I don’t really have problems with getting tired. You do train hard over the winter, but it doesn’t matter how hard you train when you get back on the bike you use different muscles to what you use in the gym and your always sore after the first few rides. Over the winter I do a lot of conditioning pulling my own body weight, rather than lifting big heavy weights as I don’t want to bulk up, I mean you look at Rossi and alike, there not big guys there all small, so its all about power to weight ratio. It’s more about general exercise like press-ups and pull-ups, resistance work with your own weight and keeping your cardio strength up. It’s all about staying race distance with your heart rate up, so I monitor all that on my pushbike on the treadmill or however you intend doing it.

Do you have a diet plan or are you not to strict with food?

I’m not overly strict with it, I mean in the middle of the season you have to be strict with it because you are doing so much travelling and then racing, you get run down very quick, but over the winter you relax a bit without getting silly, the guy who used train me was a pro cyclist so his diet was one hundred percent perfect, and I learnt a lot from him. Even when you think your doing well with your diet he would say that would never pass my lips. Your subconscious kind of takes care of a lot, it wont let you eat sausage rolls and pastry and stuff, there not part of what you want when your training. You just keep your hydration up and such and it doesn’t become a chore because it’s what your used to doing.

You come from a racing family firstly with your Dad and your two brothers as well, is there a lot of friendly banter and rivalry between the three of you?

Umm yeah, 2006 was the last time we all raced from the same paddock together, it looks like now I’m going to be the only one left in the superbike championship, my brother Michael is talking about racing in America next year, and Eugene is moving from two fifty gp to supersport six hundred. But usually we all touch base after a race and talk things over, but it’s always nice when one of us doesn’t have a race weekend we can turn up at another meeting and help each other out, we have a lot of respect for each other on the track, myself and brother Michael were racing against each other in Australia and we had quite a few close times on the track trading places and stuff but we know each others ability and trust each other.

Trust, you must have a lot of trust and faith in the ability of most of the riders you race with I guess?

Yes, that’s a big thing where every body needs to be on a level par, where they know if someone’s up the inside that they’ve got the racing line and they give way to them, just there when I came back to Ireland to race I made a few bad starts off the line I had to come from say eighth position, so you’re riding with people who are sort of at a different racing level and when you go up the inside they cut your nose off and nearly put you in the gravel as such. It can get dangerous then if your racing with people without that experience. But when your racing with people at the same level the racing is clean and a lot safer.

What do you do for fun away from racing?

I like to play a bit of golf and stuff, my brother in law is big into golf so we play for a bit of fun. I’m not very good mind but I do enjoy it. I like swimming and cycling, I class them as hobbies, not really into running, that’s more of a chore for me.  Enjoy trials riding as well.

Any idea what’s happening ride wise next year?

Not at the minute, that will hopefully be getting sorted out in the next couple of weeks, the teams are all waiting for sponsors to come in, our team is waiting to hear back from Ducati itself, they are suppose to be sorting that within the next two weeks and then the team can announce what they are doing. They want to stay with myself and Michael Rutter but it all depends what response they get from Ducati and the other sponsors. Our team is still away racing at the moment with Michael Rutter in Macau so I guess everything will be finalised when everybody gets back to base.

Thanks John, anybody you want to give a shout to?

You guys at Spiked, it’s been good working with you, I’ve had plenty of comments on the clothing, a lot of people like the brand. They think the stuff is very smart. Hopefully we can work together next year. Also a big thank you to the NW200 Buildbase Ducati team for a successful season.