for a year , then saw a completely different person in the first few rounds last year after I had retired . They were the first one to say that there was now a bit of ‘ craic ’ with me . I suppose that ’ s because I was not having a good time either in the final year of riding . There was some banter in Indonesia and Australia , so I guess you do change without realising it .”
Being a Team Owner is not quite the same as the demands of racing yourself . “ There is still responsibility but not the same as a rider , putting your neck on the line . But I was pretty good at home , I never took my racing home with me .”
Never mind personality changes , retirement even brought about positive physical changes for Laverty , as he explains . “ I did notice another change in myself , that took probably a year from stopping racing to show up , My health has been a lot better this year , from around February . I din ’ t realise how bad my health had got to in some ways , just from never stopping and taking for granted certain things that we were used to as part of the job of racing . I always laughed when I had blood tests because the doctor would always ask , ‘ are you nervous of needles ?’ I would say , ‘ my Cortisol ( a stress hormone produced in the adrenal gland ) levels are high , aren ’ t they ?!” That high reading shows that I didn ’ t take enough time off from riding , practising , training , etc .. Even riding bikes for fun , there is still adrenaline and the Cortisol and other stuff in your body goes mad because of the speed aspect of riding . It was only once I got away from racing for a year all that has kind of recovered . Even a skin condition that I had since 2015 cleared up and went back to normal . So then I realised , ‘ yeah , I really should have had more down time .’ I like riding bikes but you need to force yourself to take a month or so off in the winter and then again in the summer to let your body recoup .”
And on the metal side ? What ’ s different in retirement ? “ I just turned 38 , and that is still young enough , but no job is guaranteed ,” said Laverty . “ For the future you still have to be thinking about the next chapters and where we go from here . But it is not the same level of stress as knowing that that for those 15 years or so of a racing career there are only a few coveted seats that you need to get . That was very nervewracking . It was very stressful to know that if you did not perform , even race-to-race , it could be all finished .”
So the big answer I went looking for - about how a typical top WorldSBK rider may go through something as profound as a personality change in retirement - is maybe too specific to fit more than a few . But life changes there will be , in many ways for many riders .
Much of this seems to do with individual circumstances and outcomes , and in particular how each rider ’ s on-track career came to an end .
What does seem universally true is that the extreme , often unreasonable , demands on every active racer pushes their own unique personality and character to its very edge . For those racing years at least . Then they seem to eventually accept their non-racer status and very seldom end up in a career or role that demands as much as WorldSBK racing did . That removal of unreasonable pressure , risk and stress just lets them become more … normal ? Well , that ’ s maybe stretching things a bit for some .
FOTO ?
47 THE BIG READ