By “Quite hard to put into words to be honest because didn’t know what to expect but was glad to get the first one over then get out there myself, take it all in and enjoy every single second of it.”
Kevin Lavery’s summary of his first competitive Mountain Course laps.
Following his dad Brian in taking on real road racing’s biggest challenge, the Blackwatertown rider has impressed throughout Manx GP qualifying week.
Lapping inside 19 minutes 50 seconds, Friday afternoon’s qualifying voyage, saw the 2025 Ulster Road Race Senior Support and Junior Support Championship runner-up, surpass the 114-mph lap-mark.
Riding his own teams R6 Yamaha and the Ryan Farquhar (KMR Kawasaki) prepared LMR Kawasaki, Lavery the quickest newcomer within Sportbike qualifying (111.290) stated he wants to “take it all in steady” for the remainder of this year’s MGP.
“Take it all in steady, don’t be doing anything stupid, just take it all in and just keep building and just feel comfortable.
It is a big learning curve, you are not going to learn it all in your first year, well could take it up to three years to fully get it all into the brain.”
Super Twins Race runner-up at Tandragee, Lavery is pleased with the progress he has made at national meetings in 2026.
“We’ve had-some good-results at Tandragee, Armoy and Cookstown, it’s been a good year, only my second year on the roads and last year I was in the Junior and Senior Support back home only got three races, then I-was-upgraded to national status so was out with the big boys, so happy enough and this was the main goal.”
Set for his Mountain Course racing bow in today’s Road Racing News Sportbike, Glover Law Supersport races, Lavery regards Irish road racing legend Martin Finnegan, as his all-time pure road racing hero.
“Probably have to be Martin Finnegan, just growing up around the Irish road races and stuff like that, he was there, Ryan Farquhar would be one too, but Martin Finnegan probably was number one.”
Photo credit: Nick Wheeler
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
