Michael Laverty credited his Tyco BMW team with a great strategy after set-up changes allowed him to post his best result of the season, taking a hard fought second place in British Superbike race two today at Silverstone.
Laverty opted for the harder Pirelli SC1 rear tyre in both races, and while he used the best of his front tyre in race one before he could make a podium charge, a change of set-up for race two allowed him to fight tooth-and-nail with Dan Linfoot and come out on top. Tommy Bridewell was on the back foot all weekend after an early crash on Friday, but the Wiltshire rider dug deep and produced ninth and seventh placed finished on his Tyco BMW S1000RR.
Michael Laverty: “I was the only one who chose the hard rear tyre but we had that strategy right from Friday. We maybe don’t set the fastest lap times but it allowed us to be strong at the end of the race. The boys made some clever changes for race two and even with the hard tyre I hung in there and fought. It’s nice to get second place. We’ve had a strong weekend and got to put the Tyco BMW on the rostrum. I’m getting more and more comfortable on the S1000RR and now that I’m getting my teeth into it, we might just have a little bit more to show at Brands Hatch.”
Tommy Bridewell: “What can we say, but it has been a disappointing weekend for me. The crash on Friday obviously put me on the back foot and although two top tens might look like solid enough results, it’s not where I want to be. I said at the start of the Showdown that anything less than podiums would not be enough and that’s still how I feel going into the final three races of the year at Brands Hatch, where we have already shown we have strong pace.”
Alastair Seeley rode a tremendous National 1000cc Superstock race, fighting from tenth place to lead on the final lap as he looked to take the championship battle down to the final day at Brands Hatch. Unfortunately a rash move from one of his rivals forced Seeley and his Tyco BMW off track, and his sixth place wasn’t enough to keep his series hopes alive.
Alastair Seeley: “I’m gutted the championship was decided that way today. I know I did the best that I could coming from tenth place to lead the race and also take the fastest lap of the race. It was a challenging weekend but the last thing I expected was to be lifted and taken out of the race by someone on a BMW, which cost me a chance to fight for the title on the final day. That’s the way it goes and all credit to Josh Elliott on his championship success. The plan is to go to Brands with Tyco BMW and put our S1000RR back on the top step of the podium where it belongs.”
Philip Neill – Team Manager: “Overall it was a mixed weekend for us. It’s hard to hide our disappointment the way the Superstock championship finished through no fault on Alastair’s part. He did everything he needed to do on his S1000RR but unfortunately the end result was taken out of his hands.
“However the positive steps we have taken with Michael these past few weeks in the Superbike class have continued, although the race one strategy didn’t go quite to plan with a front tyre wear problem late in the race. Michael did bounce back in race two with a great result after some intelligent set-up changes, so fair play to him and his crew. They earned that result.
“Tommy unfortunately had another difficult start to his weekend with a crash early on and found it hard to find a comfortable set-up from that point. He did however dig deep in both races and seventh place from fifteenth on the grid in race two was just reward for his efforts. Thanks once again to our crew and everyone involved with Tyco BMW.”
For more information please contact [email protected] www.tycobmw.com
www.tyco-bmw.com