Gregorio Lavilla

Gregorio Lavilla (born 29 September 1974) 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

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

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 team-mate 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

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

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

(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
Year	Make	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	Pos.	Pts
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

Races by year

(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

In 2012, he joined the Avintia Blusens MotoGP CRT team as crew chief, from the second round of testing onwards.

Personal

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

References

1 2 3 "Gregorio Lavilla MotoGP statistics". motogp.com. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
1 2 3 4 5 "Gregorio Lavilla WSBK statistics". worldsbk.com. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
↑ "2005 British Superbike statistical summary". www.f1network.net. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
↑ http://www.superbike.co.uk/news/Gregorio_Lavilla_out_of_Pro_Ride_WSB_team_news_279722.html Gregorio Lavilla out of Pro Ride WSBK team
↑ "Lavilla returns to replace Roberts". crash.net. 2009-05-12. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
↑ Gregorio Lavilla To Replace Brendan Roberts For Rest Of Season

External links

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gregoriolavilla.com Official site

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