OFFICIAL PROGRAMME
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EUGENE LAVERTY
At a pivotal time in my career I was fortunate to come across two people that would influence my approach to racing . The first was Lucio Cecchinello who gave me my shot in world championship racing in 2007 . I was on an underpowered Honda in the 250cc World Championship but Lucio taught me to search for every 1 % rather than just sitting back and accepting that my machinery wasn ’ t up to it . He helped me to make the transition from being a kid into a professional racer . 2009 was my major breakthrough year , winning my first world championship race and it was largely thanks to my team manager Simon Buckmaster . Simon is very direct and honest and I value those characteristics . I was still young and making stupid , unforced errors and Simon told me as much . I ’ ll be forever grateful for that because I often see family and friends making excuses for riders but that helps no one . Simon was never going to allow that in his team and instead taught me to be accountable for my actions .”
MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI
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My family is like a normal family , so when we started with me in racing it was like in ‘ random mode ’. I had the speed since I was a baby but I did not have help from any other riders at that time . Valentino Rossi was my idol , and is still my idol because he is still doing great things , but during my career I have had the pleasure to meet Andrea Dovizioso , who is now my big friend . He helped me a lot this year to grow up . I have Valentino as my first idol but then Dovi taught me great stuff , so I can say that he is my mentor because he helped me a lot . I do not want to call him my mentor - he is my friend - but he helped me . First of all now we are friends but when you are around people like him , you can always improve . Since 2017 , each year we are closer and closer and also sometimes I train at the ranch of Valentino Rossi and then you can improve some things . I met them when I was already in Stock 1000 - so it was late in my career . But for sure it is always good .”
EXCITING CONTENT
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