WSBK: Stuck throttle for Laverty almost ‘put him in the wall’

A stuck throttle caused Ireland’s Eugene Laverty to retire from race two, with the ex GP star leaving Donington Park very unhappy. Laverty’s teammate Lorenzo Savadori had a great race two, however his teammate came away from Donington Park with a mere 10 points in total.

Laverty describes how his Milwaukee Aprilia nearly ‘put him in the wall’ before he finally called it a day. Since returning from injury after a crash at Buriram in Thailand at the start of the season, “Norge” has shown great progress, climbing up the ladder in every race. However, this is first retirement since returning to racing.

“I had a problem on Lap 1 where the rear wheel locked after Turn 7. I thought I had oil in the tyre but there was some bug issue with the bike. I tried to stay in the race and at least salvage some points, but the throttle stuck open about halfway which scared me,” said the Irishman, who is 15th in the standings.

“I lost a few more places trying to make sure I didn’t collide with another rider, and then it happened again and nearly put me in the wall. After that it wasn’t worth the risk so I boxed.

“I’m not happy with how the weekend went overall, we were quick in the warm up today but then had an electronics issue at the end, and then again in the race we had a problem which was a disaster.”

Laverty’s luck at Donington Park has been unfortunate in the past, with just one podium at the venue. Laverty is also continuing his search for a first podium in racing since his last spell in World Superbikes, which ended in 2014. His last podium came at Sepang in race one, 2014, almost four years ago to the date.

“The bike should work well in Brno, anywhere with long corners suits us. The other guys have tested there this year so they have a slight head start, but I’m confident we can put on a good performance there,” concluded a dejected Laverty.