Régis Laconi

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

Early career Laconi 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 Laconi's 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 tenth, 11th and 12th in the series in this time, but won at Valencia in 1999

Superbike World Championship Source:

For , Laconi 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 fourth, but he benefitted from knowing this circuit (which, like himself, was new to WSBK after being familiar in 500cc). He qualified second, 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 eighth, so for he returned to WSBK for the Caracchi Ducati team, doing enough to earn a factory ride for by taking five podium finishes, finishing fourth in a relatively weakened championship.

Laconi and team-mate James Toseland were clear favourites for the title, which Toseland took at the final round of the season, in spite of Régis taking five poles and seven wins, and having what is seen as the stronger team of mechanics. His season was interrupted by injury, and for 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 ninth and Fonsi Nieto in tenth.

Laconi remained with the team for and finished 10th overall. He continued with the same team for . 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. 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 had undergone surgery to clasp his cervical vertebrae back together and it was expected he would 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 was still intact. But any thoughts of returning to racing for the moment are premature and totally groundless. The friendship that tied Laconi to team manager Daniele Carli enabled the test to take place.

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 1992 125cc Honda JPN AUS MAL SPA ITA EUR GER NED HUN FRA26 GBR BRA RSA NC 0 1995 250cc Honda AUSRet MAL21 JPN15 SPA20 GERRet ITA19 NEDRet FRARet GBR15 CZE21 BRARet ARG14 EURRet 27th 4 1996 250cc Honda MALRet INA16 JPN14 SPARet ITA14 FRA11 NEDRet GER8 GBR7 AUT9 CZE16 IMORet CAT10 BRARet AUS12 15th 43 1997 500cc Honda MAL12 JPN12 SPA10 ITA10 AUTRet FRA NED IMO GER BRA9 GBRRet CZE7 CAT11 INA16 AUS5 14th 52 1998 500cc Yamaha JPNDNS MAL SPA14 ITA10 FRA11 MAD7 NED9 GBR8 GER5 CZE9 IMO12 CAT8 AUS7 ARG6 10th 86 1999 500cc Yamaha MAL7 JPNRet SPA7 FRA8 ITARet CATRet NED12 GBRRet GER13 CZE9 IMO5 VAL1 AUS3 RSA14 BRA11 ARG12 11th 103 2000 500cc Yamaha RSA9 MAL9 JPN14 SPA8 FRA9 ITA7 CAT13 NED8 GBR12 GER7 CZE13 POR5 VAL6 BRA8 PAC11 AUS11 12th 106 2002 MotoGP Aprilia JPN8 RSA15 SPA14 FRA9 ITA8 CAT14 NEDRet GBR16 GERRet CZE16 PORRet BRARet PAC11 MAL17 AUSRet VALRet 19th 33

Superbike World Championship

Races by year Year Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 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 SPA4 SPARet RSA8 RSA6 AUSRet AUSC JPN14 JPN14 ITA5 ITA8 GBR12 GBR11 GER7 GER13 SMRRet SMRRet USA11 USA9 EURRet EUR11 GER8 GER5 NED9 NED7 ITARet ITA1 11th 152 2003 Ducati SPA5 SPARet AUS6 AUS4 JPN2 JPN7 ITA2 ITA4 GER4 GER4 GBR4 GBR6 SMR3 SMR4 USARet USA4 GBR4 GBR8 NEDRet NED4 ITA3 ITA2 FRA6 FRA16 4th 267 2004 Ducati SPARet SPARet AUS1 AUSRet SMR1 SMR2 ITA1 ITA1 GER6 GER1 GBRRet GBR3 USA5 USA3 EUR2 EURRet NED3 NED5 ITA1 ITA1 FRA3 FRA3 2nd 327 2005 Ducati QAT3 QAT2 AUS7 AUS7 SPADNS SPADNS ITA4 ITA2 EUR1 EURRet SMR1 SMR1 CZE3 CZE7 GBR3 GBR5 NEDDNS NEDDNS GER GER ITA9 ITAC FRADNS FRADNS 6th 221 2006 Kawasaki QAT13 QATRet AUS13 AUS16 SPA8 SPA8 ITA7 ITARet EUR7 EUR14 SMR6 SMR19 CZERet CZE16 GBR9 GBR4 NEDRet NED8 GER12 GER19 ITA10 ITA10 FRA9 FRA18 15th 103 2007 Kawasaki QATRet QAT11 AUSRet AUSRet EUR7 EUR6 SPA11 SPA8 NED16 NED10 ITARet ITA8 GBR5 GBRC SMR7 SMR11 CZE11 CZE14 GBR8 GBR9 GER6 GER11 ITA7 ITARet FRA9 FRA8 10th 137 2008 Kawasaki QAT15 QAT16 AUSRet AUS17 SPA8 SPA9 NED11 NED16 ITARet ITARet USARet USA9 GER14 GER10 SMRRet SMRRet CZERet CZERet GBRRet GBR16 EURRet EUR15 ITA16 ITA9 FRA11 FRA20 POR10 POR10 16th 61 2009 Ducati AUS7 AUS4 QAT10 QAT14 SPA4 SPA4 NED8 NED16 ITA8 ITA11 RSA RSA USA USA SMR SMR GBR GBR CZE CZE GER GER ITA ITA FRA FRA POR POR 15th 77

MotoAmerica SuperBike Championship By year