SBK: Eugene Laverty’s career

The racing career of another World Superbike talent, Eugene Laverty, draws to a close. But the Irishman will continue to work in the paddock next season, managing the Bonovo Action BMW team that will field Loris Baz and Garrett Gerloff.

We look back at the Irishman’s career

The beginnings: BSB and the world championship

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Eugene Laverty was born in Toome on 3 June 1986. He began his sporting career in 2002, in the British 125 championship. During three seasons there, he scored four wins and various podiums, before racing in BSB Supersport in 2005-2006 and achieving four wins and eight podiums.

2004 saw him make his world championship debut when he wildcarded in the British GP aboard the Honda 125 of the RedBull Rookies team. In 2007 he moved to the 250 world championship class with LCR Honda, scoring six points in all. He moved to Aprilia in 2008, again in the 250 class, but his contract was dissolved after the Misano round.

He also competed in MotoGP in 2015-2016, amassing just 86 points in 36 races, a fourth-place finish in Argentina in 2016 his best result.

His world championship tally was rather meagre, amounting to 100 points over a total of 66 races, P13 his best championship position.

 

World Supersport

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Having finished his 250 campaign ahead of time, Laverty debuted in Supersport at Donington Park, substituting for the injured Fabien Foret aboard the Yamaha R6. He finished the race P12. In the subsequent race, he scored his first career podium when he finished P3 at Vallelunga.

In 2009 he moved to the Parkalgar Honda team. Thanks to four race wins and four second place finishes, he rounded out the season as runner-up to Crutchlow. The following year, he amassed wins and a total of ten podiums, but the results weren’t enough to win the championship. He again finished second overall, just 11 points behind Sofuoglu.

All in all, he ran in 29 Supersport races, winning 12 and scoring 19 podiums and 508 points in total.

 

World Superbike

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He made his Superbike debut in 2011, competing for the factory Yamaha team alongside another well-known ‘rookie’, Marco Melandri. He immediately scored a double win at Monza and finished the year fourth overall. Aprilia took him in for 2012, the Irishman flanking Max Biaggi before taking on the role of team captain. He finished the year sixth, winning race 2 at Portimão. In 2013 he was championship runner-up to Tom Sykes after winning the same number of races – nine - as the Kawasaki rider.

Having moved to Suzuki in 2014, he scored the one and only win for the Japanese bike in Superbike, in race 1 in Australia. He finished the season tenth with 161 points.

After a two-year stint in MotoGP in 2015-2016, he returned to Superbike in 2017 and was back with Aprilia but the results didn’t match his earlier performance with the Noale bike. He rounded out the year tenth with two fourth-place finishes his best result, before finishing 2018 in eighth place, thanks to two podiums.

His career began to wane once he moved to the Go Eleven team and the Ducati, after which he also began to suffer more injuries. He closed fifteenth in 2019, with 81 points, having missed four rounds due to injury.

In 2020 he jumped to BMW alongside Tom Sykes. During a tough season, the Irishman scored just 55 points, which left him in the same overall position as the previous year. The following year began with the RC Squadra Corse team but this adventure lasted just four rounds. The team withdrew after the UK round and Laverty was left without a ride. He was then called up by the factory team to stand in for an injured Sykes at the Jerez round, after which he remained for subsequent rounds too. He finished the year in P19, with just 40 points.

2022 saw him race with the Bonovo Action team together with team-mate Loris Baz. Another tough year saw him finish inside the points zone in just 12 of the 35 races, scoring only 36 points in all. On 1 August, the Irishman announced that he would retire come the end of the season. He will remain in the Superbike paddock as Bonovo Action team manager.

His final WorldSBK tally amounts to 13 wins and 35 podiums in 245 races and a total of 1678.5 points.