For most of this year, Parkalgar Honda has been toying with the idea of moving up to the World Superbike level. Their most successful rider, Eugene Laverty, will be taking the step up to the World Superbike level, but Parkalgar Honda has just reaffirmed their commitment to the Supersport division next year.
The Parkalgar team was hoping to move up in the ranks while retaining Laverty, but now that Laverty has committed to the Factory Yamaha team, Parkalgar has scrapped their plans to move to the Superbike division.
Parkalgar will still have rider Miguel Praia, who has been apart of the team for the last 4 years, but they will have to find a replacement for Laverty. With Laverty, the Parkalgar Honda was and is a serious title contender. Team boss Simon Buckmaster wants to keep it that way.
“Eugene has proved how good our Parkalgar Honda race bike is and it is right that he moves on and we wish him well,” Buckmaster said. “From the team's perspective I am already talking with a number of obvious and not so obvious choices for 2011 with a view to retaining our position as a Championship challenging and race winning team.”
“We are honest when we say we believe we have the best motorcycle package in the Championship and we want a rider to help us win the 2011 title and help to develop Miguel into the top six finisher he has shown he is capable of. We will be confirming our final rider line-up soon.”
Laverty is currently in the title fight with Kenan Sofuoglu, but will be moving up to the Superbike division no matter what the outcome. Laverty was the runner up in the 2009 championship, and currently has 11 World Supersport wins to his name.
