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Gregorio Lavilla

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Gregorio Lavilla
Gregorio Lavilla 2005 BSB
NationalitySpanish
Born (1973-09-29) 29 September 1973 (age 51)
Vandellòs i l'Hospitalet de l'Infant, Tarragona, Spain
Websitegregoriolavilla.com
Motorcycle racing career statistics
MotoGP World Championship
Active years1995, 1998, 2004
ManufacturersSuzuki
2004 championship positionNC (0 pts)
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
18 0 0 0 0 7
Superbike World Championship
Active years1994, 1996 - 2003, 2008 - 2009
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
180 0 12 0 3 1098,5
British Superbike Championship
Active years2005-2007
ManufacturersDucati
Championships1 (2005)
2007 championship position4th (368 pts)
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
76 22 51 18 25 600

Gregorio Lavilla (born 29 September 1973) is a Spanish former professional motorcycle road racer. He has raced in MotoGP (full-time in 250s, and part-time in 500s and MotoGP itself), the Superbike World Championship, and the British Superbike Championship, taking the British crown in 2005.[1][2] For 2008 he raced in WSB for the Ventaxia Honda team, finishing the championship in 12th place. He raced in four rounds of the 2009 WSB series with the Guandalini Racing Ducati team.[2]

Early years

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Born in Vandellòs i l'Hospitalet de l'Infant, Tarragona, Spain, Lavilla was the Spanish Superbike champion in 1994, and raced in the 250cc Grand Prix World Championship the next year.[1] He was runner-up in Germany's Superbike championship in 1997, on board a Ducati. In 1998 he first raced in the Superbike World Championship full-time, on a private Ducati, taking two outright podiums.[2] He also made a one-off appearance at the German Grand Prix in the 500 cc class riding for the Honda Movistar Team of former rider Sito Pons.[1] He then spent 3 years with Kawasaki's factory superbike team, finishing 8th overall despite experiencing many crashes in 1999 (including five in a row) and finishing 10th overall in 2000 despite missing four rounds through injury, before a stronger 2001, in which he was the second-highest non-wildcard in Race 1 at Sugo.

For 2002 and 2003 he raced a factory Suzuki, doing what he could on a 750cc 4-cylinder bike which lagged behind the 1000cc Ducatis (and Colin Edwards' Honda in 2002), finishing 5th overall in the relatively weak 2003 championship with 19 top-six finishes including seven podiums, although still not taking a race win.[2] Suzuki did not enter a WSBK team in 2004, and Gregorio remained with them as a factory test rider, substituting for Yukio Kagayama in the BSB series once, and doing 4 MotoGP races for the team. He was released at the end of the season, leaving the way clear for his fairytale 2005.

British Superbike Championship

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His victory in the 2005 British Superbike Championship was a major surprise, especially because he had never raced in the championship full-time before, and only got his ride a few days before the season started, initially to replace the injured James Haydon in the Airwaves Ducati team. He started so strongly that the team chose to retain him. He soon established himself ahead of teammate Leon Haslam, and the main rival to the Honda bikes, before a run of 6 wins and 5 second places in the final 11 races saw him take the crown.[3]

He started 2006 in even stronger form, with 6 wins in the first 8 races. His championship lead reached 66 points, but dropped after he crashed out of race 12 at Snetterton. Croft was not a successful meeting for him - a technical problem in race 1 and a fall in race 2 saw his championship lead down to 11 points over Haslam and 20 over Ryuichi Kiyonari's Honda. Further struggles meant that he lost the championship lead, and the final meeting was a disaster - he failed to score in either race, and slipped to 3rd in the championship behind Kiyonari and Haslam. His totals of 8 wins and 10 further podiums were still impressive for a third-place overall finish.

He started 2007 spectacularly, winning the first four races, and also winning race 7. However his form then faded and he finished 4th overall.

World Championship part 2

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For 2008 he moved to the Superbike World Championship riding a Honda CBR1000RR for Ventaxia VK Honda as part of the Paul Bird team.[2] The team failed to run near the front, but Lavilla scored points in all but two races, peaking with fourth place in a chaotic first race at Donington Park but more often finishing between 11th and 15th. For 2009 he joined the Pro Ride Honda (formerly Alto Evolution) team, before sponsorship losses forced them to part company with Lavilla and only run a partial schedule[[4]]. In May 2009 Lavilla returned to WSBK with the Guandalini Racing team, initially in a one-race deal to replace the injured Brendan Roberts.[5] It was subsequently reported that Lavilla would race with Guandalini for the rest of the season,[6] but after four rounds (Kyalami, Miller, Misano and Donington), he was replaced at the team by Italian Matteo Baiocco.

Career statistics

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Superbike World Championship

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Races by year

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Pos. Pts
R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2
1994 Yamaha GBR GBR GER GER ITA ITA SPA
17
SPA
17
AUT AUT INA INA JPN JPN NED NED SMR SMR EUR EUR AUS AUS NC 0
1996 Yamaha SMR SMR GBR GBR GER GER ITA ITA CZE CZE USA USA EUR EUR INA INA JPN JPN NED NED SPA
11
SPA
12
AUS AUS 32nd 9
1997 Ducati AUS AUS SMR SMR GBR
13
GBR
13
GER
DNS
GER
13
ITA ITA USA USA EUR EUR AUT
Ret
AUT
Ret
NED NED SPA
7
SPA
Ret
JPN JPN INA INA 26th 18
1998 Ducati AUS
11
AUS
11
GBR
Ret
GBR
Ret
ITA
10
ITA
Ret
SPA
3
SPA
Ret
GER
Ret
GER
6
SMR
Ret
SMR
7
RSA
3
RSA
Ret
USA
13
USA
Ret
EUR
Ret
EUR
Ret
AUT
11
AUT
7
NED
Ret
NED
Ret
JPN
17
JPN
15
12th 83.5
1999 Kawasaki RSA
8
RSA
6
AUS
Ret
AUS
Ret
GBR
Ret
GBR
Ret
SPA
6
SPA
4
ITA
8
ITA
7
GER
4
GER
Ret
SMR
7
SMR
5
USA
12
USA
8
EUR
Ret
EUR
10
AUT
5
AUT
Ret
NED
9
NED
7
GER
6
GER
8
JPN
14
JPN
16
8th 156
2000 Kawasaki RSA
6
RSA
5
AUS
7
AUS
4
JPN
10
JPN
10
GBR
11
GBR
Ret
ITA
6
ITA
Ret
GER GER SMR SMR SPA SPA USA USA GBR
12
GBR
8
NED
Ret
NED
Ret
GER
2
GER
4
GBR
9
GBR
5
10th 133
2001 Kawasaki SPA
5
SPA
3
RSA
7
RSA
7
AUS
Ret
AUS
C
JPN
6
JPN
19
ITA
4
ITA
Ret
GBR
10
GBR
13
GER
6
GER
16
SMR
4
SMR
3
USA
12
USA
Ret
EUR
Ret
EUR
14
GER
11
GER
7
NED
12
NED
9
ITA
7
ITA
6
10th 166
2002 Suzuki SPA
8
SPA
Ret
AUS
7
AUS
8
RSA
Ret
RSA
11
JPN
12
JPN
12
ITA
7
ITA
5
GBR
Ret
GBR
14
GER
8
GER
Ret
SMR
10
SMR
6
USA
DNS
USA
DNS
GBR
15
GBR
12
GER
8
GER
9
NED
7
NED
Ret
ITA
8
ITA
7
10th 130
2003 Suzuki SPA
7
SPA
6
AUS
3
AUS
7
JPN
5
JPN
2
ITA
3
ITA
2
GER
Ret
GER
Ret
GBR
Ret
GBR
2
SMR
4
SMR
5
USA
Ret
USA
5
GBR
7
GBR
6
NED
Ret
NED
3
ITA
4
ITA
3
FRA
4
FRA
4
5th 256
2008 Honda QAT
13
QAT
14
AUS
11
AUS
8
SPA
7
SPA
11
NED
9
NED
7
ITA
11
ITA
10
USA
13
USA
15
GER
Ret
GER
14
SMR
8
SMR
14
CZE
15
CZE
14
GBR
14
GBR
13
EUR
4
EUR
7
ITA
14
ITA
Ret
FRA
10
FRA
12
POR
6
POR
8
12th 135
2009 Ducati AUS AUS QAT QAT SPA SPA NED NED ITA ITA RSA
11
RSA
12
USA
14
USA
Ret
SMR
22
SMR
15
GBR
Ret
GBR
18
CZE CZE GER GER ITA ITA FRA FRA POR POR 28th 12

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

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Races by year

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Class Bike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pos. Pts
1995 250cc Honda AUS
15
MAL
22
JPN
Ret
SPA
23
GER
18
ITA
22
NED
15
FRA
18
GBR
22
CZE
18
BRA
Ret
ARG
19
EUR
24
32nd 2
1998 500cc Honda JPN MAL SPA ITA FRA MAD NED GBR GER
11
CZE IMO CAT AUS ARG 27th 5
2004 MotoGP Suzuki RSA SPA FRA ITA CAT
Ret
NED BRA GER GBR CZE
Ret
POR JPN QAT MAL AUS
16
VAL
17
NC 0

Post racing career

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In 2012, he joined the Avintia Blusens MotoGP CRT team as crew chief, from the second round of testing onwards. In 2013 he became a member of the new Dorna WorldSBK Orangisation (DWO), to become the WorldSBK Sporting director later.

Personal

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His sporting heroes are Mick Doohan, Wayne Rainey and Lance Armstrong. He is unmarried and lives in L'Hospitalet de l'Infant.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Gregorio Lavilla MotoGP statistics". motogp.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Gregorio Lavilla WSBK statistics". worldsbk.com. Archived from the original on 18 June 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  3. ^ "2005 British Superbike statistical summary". www.f1network.net. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  4. ^ http://www.superbike.co.uk/news/Gregorio_Lavilla_out_of_Pro_Ride_WSB_team_news_279722.html[permanent dead link] Gregorio Lavilla out of Pro Ride WSBK team
  5. ^ "Lavilla returns to replace Roberts". crash.net. 12 May 2009. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
  6. ^ Gregorio Lavilla To Replace Brendan Roberts For Rest Of Season
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