Gregorio Lavilla
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Gregorio Lavilla is a motorcycle racer from Spain. 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.
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.
He had been Spanish Superbike champion in 1994, and raced in the 250cc World Championship the next year. In 1998 he first raced in WSBK on a private Ducati, taking two outright podiums. He then spent 3 years with Kawasaki and 2 with Suzuki, taking many podiums but no wins, although he was 5th overall in the relatively weak 2003 championship. 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. His sporting heroes are Mick Doohan and Lance Armstrong.
