Régis Laconi

Régis Laconi
Laconi at the Assen round of the 2009 Superbike World Championship season.
Nationality	French
Motorcycle racing career statistics Grand Prix motorcycle racing Active years 1992, 1995 - 2000, 2002 First race 1992 125cc French Grand Prix Last race 2002 500cc Valencia Grand Prix First win 1999 500cc Valencia Grand Prix Last win 1999 500cc Valencia Grand Prix Team(s) Aprilia, WCM Yamaha Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 100 1 2 1 0 427 Superbike World Championship Active years 2001, 2003 - 2009 Manufacturers Aprilia, Ducati, Kawasaki 2009 championship position 15th Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 173 11 28 7 10 1345

Régis Laconi (born 8 July 1975 in Saint-Dizier, Haute-Marne) is a French former professional motorcycle racer. In 2009 he competed in the Superbike World Championship for DFX on a Ducati. He was runner-up in 2004, and has won races in both 500cc and the Superbike World Championship.

Early career

Régis has a French mother and Italian father. He started racing in 1991 in the French 125cc championship. He won this title in 1992, the French 250cc title a year later, and the European 250cc champion in 1994. For 1995 he went to the 250cc World Championship, but was never a front-runner in his two seasons there.

500cc

1997 was his first season on a 500cc Grand Prix bike, but his World Championship season was marred by injury, missing four rounds after being run over twice in a first-turn incident at the A1 Ring. With Red Bull backing he returned for 1998, riding a Yamaha for three years. He finished 10th, 11th and 12th in the series in this time, but won at Valencia in 1999 ^[1]

Superbike World Championship ^[2]

For 2001 he was a factory Aprilia WSBK rider. He led the first lap of the season, but struggled for much of the season on circuits he did not know. Until the final round at Imola his best result was a 4th, but he benefitted from knowing this circuit (which, like himself, was new to WSBK after being familiar in 500cc). He qualified 2nd, and won the second race, after running strongly in race 1 before being taken out by a fall for champion Troy Bayliss. A move to MotoGP for 2002 was not successful, with a best result of 8th, so for 2003 he returned to WSBK for the Caracchi Ducati team, doing enough to earn a factory ride for 2004 by taking 5 podium finishes, finishing 4th in a relatively weakened championship.

He and team-mate James Toseland were clear favourites for the 2004 title, which Toseland took at the final round of the season, in spite of Régis taking 5 poles and 7 wins, and having what is seen as the stronger team of mechanics. His 2005 season was interrupted by injury, and for 2006 he switched to Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse. He finished the season behind his two team-mates in the championship, taking 15th place, with Chris Walker in 9th and Fonsi Nieto in 10th.

He remained with the team for 2007 and finished 10th overall. He continues with the same team for 2008. At Misano the team ran in a localised San Marino livery, but unfortunately both he and team-mate Makoto Tamada crashed in race 1, forcing Laconi to run race 2 in the conventional green Kawasaki livery.

For 2009 Laconi switched to private Ducatis, riding the sole DFX machine. Results were strong early in the season, however he was seriously injured when he crashed heavily during the opening moments of the first practice of the Kyalami round of the World Superbike Championship.^[3] As of 20 May 2009 it was reported that Laconi awakened from his medically induced coma and is reported to have full movement in his arms, hands and legs. Laconi has undergone surgery to clasp his cervical vertebrae back together and it is expected he will remain immobile for some time.

Laconi returned for an exploratory test for the DFX Corse Ducati Team at Misano in June 2010 following his horrific crash at Kyalami in 2009. Regis had been training on his bicycle and after more than 70 laps with a best time of 1'37"800, he proved that his talent is still intact. But any thoughts of returning to racing for the moment are premature and totally groundless.The friendship that ties Regis to team manager Daniele Carli enabled the test to take place.^[4]

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Pos	Pts
1992	125cc	Honda	JPN	AUS	MAL	SPA	ITA	EUR	GER	NED	HUN	FRA 26	GBR	BRA	RSA				NC	0
1995	250cc	Honda	AUS Ret	MAL 21	JPN 15	SPA 20	GER Ret	ITA 19	NED Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 15	CZE 21	BRA Ret	ARG 14	EUR Ret				27th	4
1996	250cc	Honda	MAL Ret	INA 16	JPN 14	SPA Ret	ITA 14	FRA 11	NED Ret	GER 8	GBR 7	AUT 9	CZE 16	IMO Ret	CAT 10	BRA Ret	AUS 12		15th	43
1997	500cc	Honda	MAL 12	JPN 12	SPA 10	ITA 10	AUT Ret	FRA	NED	IMO	GER	BRA 9	GBR Ret	CZE 7	CAT 11	INA 16	AUS 5		14th	52
1998	500cc	Yamaha	JPN DNS	MAL	SPA 14	ITA 10	FRA 11	MAD 7	NED 9	GBR 8	GER 5	CZE 9	IMO 12	CAT 8	AUS 7	ARG 6			10th	86
1999	500cc	Yamaha	MAL 7	JPN Ret	SPA 7	FRA 8	ITA Ret	CAT Ret	NED 12	GBR Ret	GER 13	CZE 9	IMO 5	VAL 1	AUS 3	RSA 14	BRA 11	ARG 12	11th	103
2000	500cc	Yamaha	RSA 9	MAL 9	JPN 14	SPA 8	FRA 9	ITA 7	CAT 13	NED 8	GBR 12	GER 7	CZE 13	POR 5	VAL 6	BRA 8	PAC 11	AUS 11	12th	106
2002	MotoGP	Aprilia	JPN 8	RSA 15	SPA 14	FRA 9	ITA 8	CAT 14	NED Ret	GBR 16	GER Ret	CZE 16	POR Ret	BRA Ret	PAC 11	MAL 17	AUS Ret	VAL Ret	19th	33

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

Year	Make	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		14		Pos.	Pts
		R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
2001	Aprilia	SPA 4	SPA Ret	RSA 8	RSA 6	AUS Ret	AUS C	JPN 14	JPN 14	ITA 5	ITA 8	GBR 12	GBR 11	GER 7	GER 13	SMR Ret	SMR Ret	USA 11	USA 9	EUR Ret	EUR 11	GER 8	GER 5	NED 9	NED 7	ITA Ret	ITA 1			11th	152
2003	Ducati	SPA 5	SPA Ret	AUS 6	AUS 4	JPN 2	JPN 7	ITA 2	ITA 4	GER 4	GER 4	GBR 4	GBR 6	SMR 3	SMR 4	USA Ret	USA 4	GBR 4	GBR 8	NED Ret	NED 4	ITA 3	ITA 2	FRA 6	FRA 16					4th	267
2004	Ducati	SPA Ret	SPA Ret	AUS 1	AUS Ret	SMR 1	SMR 2	ITA 1	ITA 1	GER 6	GER 1	GBR Ret	GBR 3	USA 5	USA 3	EUR 2	EUR Ret	NED 3	NED 5	ITA 1	ITA 1	FRA 3	FRA 3							2nd	327
2005	Ducati	QAT 3	QAT 2	AUS 7	AUS 7	SPA DNS	SPA DNS	ITA 4	ITA 2	EUR 1	EUR Ret	SMR 1	SMR 1	CZE 3	CZE 7	GBR 3	GBR 5	NED DNS	NED DNS	GER	GER	ITA 9	ITA C	FRA DNS	FRA DNS					6th	221
2006	Kawasaki	QAT 13	QAT Ret	AUS 13	AUS 16	SPA 8	SPA 8	ITA 7	ITA Ret	EUR 7	EUR 14	SMR 6	SMR 19	CZE Ret	CZE 16	GBR 9	GBR 4	NED Ret	NED 8	GER 12	GER 19	ITA 10	ITA 10	FRA 9	FRA 18					15th	103
2007	Kawasaki	QAT Ret	QAT 11	AUS Ret	AUS Ret	EUR 7	EUR 6	SPA 11	SPA 8	NED 16	NED 10	ITA Ret	ITA 8	GBR 5	GBR C	SMR 7	SMR 11	CZE 11	CZE 14	GBR 8	GBR 9	GER 6	GER 11	ITA 7	ITA Ret	FRA 9	FRA 8			10th	137
2008	Kawasaki	QAT 15	QAT 16	AUS Ret	AUS 17	SPA 8	SPA 9	NED 11	NED 16	ITA Ret	ITA Ret	USA Ret	USA 9	GER 14	GER 10	SMR Ret	SMR Ret	CZE Ret	CZE Ret	GBR Ret	GBR 16	EUR Ret	EUR 15	ITA 16	ITA 9	FRA 11	FRA 20	POR 10	POR 10	16th	61
2009	Ducati	AUS 7	AUS 4	QAT 10	QAT 14	SPA 4	SPA 4	NED 8	NED 16	ITA 8	ITA 11	RSA	RSA	USA	USA	SMR	SMR	GBR	GBR	CZE	CZE	GER	GER	ITA	ITA	FRA	FRA	POR	POR	15th	77

References

1. Régis Laconi career statistics at MotoGP.com
2. Régis Laconi career World Superbike statistics at worldsbk.com
3. http://www.motorcycle.com/news/regis-laconi-seriously-injured-in-crash-88325.html Motorcycle.com
4. http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/5-news/3590-laconi-back-on-track-again-for-dfx-at-wdw.html

External links

• sportnetwork.net Rider profile