# Gregorio Lavilla

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. 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.

## 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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.
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. 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. In May 2009 Lavilla returned to WSBK with the Guandalini Racing team, initially in a one-race deal to replace the injured Brendan Roberts. It was subsequently reported that Lavilla would race with Guandalini for the rest of the season, 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 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 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. In 2013 he became a member of the new Dorna WorldSBK Orangisation (DWO), to become the WorldSBK Sporting director later.

## Personal

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