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Eugene Laverty Moves to BMW for the 2020 WorldSBK Season

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Confirming our earlier report, Eugene Laverty has made his move to the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team official today, as he replaces Markus Reiterberger’s on the team.

The news marks a return to the Shaun Muir Racing team for Laverty, who rode for the squad in 2017 and 2018, under the Milwaukee Aprilia banner.

Struggling on the Team Go Eleven Ducati this year, Laverty’s move to the BMW Motorrad squad could be well-timed, as the German bike has shown great progress over the course of the 2019 WorldSBK season.

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WSBK

Eugene Laverty and the Politics of Racing

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“When the music stops you need to grab a seat,” is a kids game, but in the grown-up business of the paddock, it is still just as relevant as if you were at a birthday party.

Unfortunately for Eugene Laverty, he’s been left as one of the last riders chasing a seat for 2019, and with Marco Melandri, Loris Baz, Jordi Torres, and Xavi Fores all also running in circles, the clock is ticking until the music stops for good.

Having thought that he’d be sticking with Shaun Muir Racing for next year, as the team switches to BMW machinery, the Irishman now finds himself on the outside looking in. From feeling secure that he would have a good ride for 2019, he suddenly finds himself staring at limited opportunities.

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WSBK

Tom Sykes Signs with Shaun Muir Racing, Will Race WorldSBK on a BMW S1000RR

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Our Paddock Pass Podcast colleague Neil Morrison is reporting on Crash.net that Tom Sykes has signed with the Shaun Muir Racing team for the 2019 World Superbike season, and that the team is set to switch machinery from Aprilia to BMW.

Markus Reiterberger will join Sykes on the factory-backed BMW team, as he has the correct passport to appease the German brand.

Of course, all of this came as a surprise to Eugene Laverty, who talked about his surprise at the news, which is set to be announced at next week’s EICMA show in Milan.

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WSBK

Tom Sykes, Where Will You Be Racing Next Year?

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With Jonathan Rea’s future firmly set at the Kawasaki Racing Team, the focus this past weekend at Laguna Seca was on the future of his teammate, Tom Sykes.

The Yorkshire man had spared few words in the media for his team and teammate in the days ahead of the California round, and he certainly wasn’t holding too much back once he was at Laguna Seca.

You could almost smell the smoke emanating from Sykes, a result of the bridge that was being burned behind him.

Sykes is 99.9% not riding with Kawasaki for the 2019 World Superbike Championship season, and he finds himself as one of the top picks in the paddock in the rider market.

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Bikes

“Overclocked” Alta Motors Redshift EXR Enduro Debuts

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It was four months ago that Alta Motors updated its Redshift lineup with the more potent Redshift MXR electric motocross bike, and from that moment we have been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This week it has, as Alta Motors is showing off the Redshift EXR, a road-legal dual-sport for enduro fans, which just became the first electric motorcycle to qualify for the Erzberg Rodeo hard enduro event in Austria.

The formula for the 2019 Alta Motors Redshift EXR is fairly simple, as it takes the current Redshift EX enduro model, and adds the drivetrain upgrades that debuted with Redshift MXR model.

This means more power (50hp), more torque (42 lbs•ft), less weight (273 lbs), and of course the “overclocking” mode for when a trail truly needs to be shredded. The recharge time has also been improved too, down to 1.5hrs on a 240-volt circuit – win, win, win.

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WSBK

Eugene Laverty Explains His 2017 WorldSBK Season

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A return to World Superbike, with the bike that he came so close to winning the championship on – it all appeared like a dream opportunity for Eugene Laverty, to put himself into a position to win the title.

The dream quickly turned to a nightmare, and from the start of winter testing it was clear that major work needed to be done to return the RSV4 to the front.

Moving to the Milwaukee Aprilia squad understandably led to heightened expectations. In their second year in WorldSBK, the former British Superbike champions were expected to make a leap forward.

Teething problems were expected with the switch from BMW to Aprilia, but not the struggles that lay ahead.

“During the winter you can go in the wrong direction with the bike,” commented Laverty. “Unfortunately, that was the case for us.”

“It wasn’t the direction that I would have taken the bike, and that’s why right away from early in the season, I was starting to steer it back to how I rode the bike four years ago. It took us a few rounds to get the right base, and we’ve been trying to progress since then.”

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WSBK

Eugene Laverty Explains His Return to Aprilia & WSBK

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The Jerez Test was hardly the first day at school for either Eugene Laverty or Lorenzo Savadori, but while the bike was similar, it was new surroundings for both riders.

With the Shaun Muir Racing squad switching to an Aprilia steed in 2017, the opening day of the Jerez test was the team’s first experience of the Italian bike.

Both Laverty and Savadori have plenty of experience on the RSV4, the Irishman was a title contender on the bike, and Savadori raced it this year, and that certainly helped both throughout the day.

For SMR however, it was all change, having used BMW S1000RRs during their debut WorldSBK season. For team boss, Shaun Muir, it was clearly an important day for the British squad.

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MotoGP

WSBK: Milwaukee SMR Switching to Aprilia for 2017+

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Aprilia have finally confirmed that they will be providing factory backing for the Milwaukee SMR squad in WorldSBK for the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

It had been an open secret for months that the Milwaukee team were looking to make a switch to Aprilia, and they had signed Eugene Laverty and Lorenzo Savadori to contest the championship for them.

But, it took a long time for the official confirmation to come through.

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Racing

World Superbike Silly Season Update: Melandri Is Back, Bradl Switches, & Aprilia Arrives

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While the MotoGP grid is as good as settled, Silly Season for World Superbikes is in full swing.

With the Kawasaki riders’ contracts settled before the summer break, attention has turned to the other seats, most of which are up in the air. In addition, there could be some changes in machinery, with some teams eyeing a switch of manufacturers.

The biggest news – still unofficial, but widely believed to be a done deal – is that Marco Melandri is set to make a return to the World Superbike paddock, this time in the factory Aruba.it Ducati team alongside Chaz Davies.

Melandri has been angling for a ride ever since his departure from the factory Aprilia MotoGP squad, a move he had never wanted to make in the first place.

Over the past twelve months or so, he has been linked to rides with Yamaha, Aprilia, BMW, and Kawasaki in World Superbikes, and – possibly the most bizarrely inaccurate rumor to be published in a while – to a ride with BMW in MotoGP.

The fact that BMW have no intention of racing in MotoGP, and the break up with Melandri in 2013 so acrimonious that they would not have him back anyway is what made that particular rumor so entertaining.

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WSBK

Laguna Seca World Superbike Debrief: The Boys of Summer

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The WorldSBK season goes on its annual summer break, with the championship suddenly poised on a much finer edge than was imaginable just a week ago.

Jonathan Rea’s dominance of the current campaign has been almost unparalleled. However, his run of 17 consecutive podium finishes to open the season is now over, and suddenly he faces a threat from within for his title defence.

This is because an engine issue left Rea on the sidelines in Race 2 at Laguna Seca, and suddenly his championship lead had been cut to 46 points. It is still a comfortable margin for Rea but suddenly doubt can creep into the “Team 65” side of the Kawasaki garage.

Tom Sykes’ win on Sunday marked a return to the winner’s circle for the former champion, and while he is still an outside bet for the title, he is at least back in realistic range of Rea.

This paints an interesting picture for the WorldSBK riders to consider while they rest over the next two months.

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WSBK

Aragon World Superbike Debrief: Shuffling the Deck

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It’s very easy to jump to quick conclusions during the early stages of a season. Momentum swings from one bike to another, and while some riders are ascending, others are having an off weekend.

However, the third round of the Superbike World Championship has definitely shown that Chaz Davies and Ducati are the form package at the moment.

The Welshman and the Italian bike claimed their first wins of 2016 in Aragon, but having been in the thick of the fight for five wins in the opening six races, their pace has not been in question.

What had been in question was top speed. While the Ducati MotoGP bike is a verified rocket, the WorldSBK specification Panigale R has traditionally struggled to keep pace with the Kawasakis on straights.

In the opening rounds we saw this when Davies was easily overtaken by Rea in both Australia and Thailand. Last weekend the tables were sensationally turned.

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