The WSBK will emerge, whatever happens this Sunday, particularly shaken from its escapade in Argentina. The fault lies with a San Juan track unworthy of an international competition, a condition of the track which angered the drivers. However, not everyone was on the same wavelength to make themselves heard. Six drivers chose to take on a strong act and a head-on clash with the organizers. Others were less determined in a tense context behind the scenes. Eugène Laverty tells. And balance!
Eugene Laverty is an Irishman and driver of the GoEleven team. He leaves disappointed Saturday in Argentina where the wind of protest blew. From six drivers who refused the Saturday race fight due to the condition of the track, with Marco Melandri, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Sandro Cortese, Chaz Davies et Leon Camier, he opens up about what happened on Eurosport: “ we had agreed with the organizers to meet on Saturday morning. It was better in cooler weather, but in the Superpole it was dangerous once the temperature rose. »
« Then we knew we were going to talk to them again, but suddenly they did something very discreet: they went to the team managers and put pressure on all of us to try to run, then we, the pilots, regrouped. We had 90% of the drivers in our favor before the race “, declared the Irish pilot.
In the words of Eugene himself, “ there will always be a few idiots who want to run and there were a few guys like Álvaro Bautista and Michael Ruben Rinaldi who wanted to run for some reason. But we had people with us. Like world champion Johnny Rea, ready to support us. He didn't want to race, Alex Lowes didn't want to, neither did Michael van der Mark. »
According to the explanations given by Laverty, several riders changed their minds a few minutes before leaving, including the recently proclaimed WSBK world champion, Jonathan Rhea : " I'm really disappointed in Johnny Rea. He is our representative as world champion and he had to be firmer and it was a very cowardly decision to go racing, he disappointed us a lot. This is something I'm going to have to talk to him about. »
Finally, the pilot stated that “ this track should never have been approved in the first place "because the level of the asphalt is not approved by FIM standards and the people who built the track are the same as those on the roads that lead to the circuit and no They didn't put the right mixture in. This is why it collapses at a certain temperature.e. »
