Laverty gearing for retirement and fixing the WorldSBK BMW’s issues

Eugene Laverty has had some remarkable results in his WorldSBK career, but this season he has decided to stop racing, and will go into team management in 2023 - plus several other roles.

He made it to be the top Independent Rider in race two at San Juan, where he spoke about the ‘road home,’ and what is like to still be racing hard, but understanding this is his last season.

“Each run, it seems like a countdown timer because I want to have some strong results and I haven’t got an amount of time to improve,” said Eugene on Sunday in Argentina. “So this was a nice surprise to get that first independent spot, but it is tough. It’s no secret, riding this bike, it’s the hardest bike I’ve ever ridden in my entire life. I’m having to ride my ass off just to hang in there. I just try and ride 21 laps as good as I can and right now it’s not good enough for much more than a few points.”

He was also not far from Scott Redding’s official BMW Motorrad bike in his final Sunday race. “That’s what was nice,” said Eugene. “It was comparable with him for the first eight laps or so, then after that I’m not able to hang in there. So, I definitely didn’t ease off. I rode my ass off because I saw the commotion in front with Bassani, long lap penalty.

“So I just thought… just in case. I didn’t know if it was first Independent after that or not, but didn’t even bother looking at my position. When you’re down in 11th you don’t really give a shit what position you are in. I just look at the gaps and the lap time and try to maintain my pace.

“The fight that I’m in is just reducing the gap to the first position. So, I ride as hard as I can for 21 laps and unfortunately the second half of the race Mikey and Scott can hang in there. Once that initial