WorldSBK star Eugene Laverty has accused WorldSBK bosses of employing ‘underhanded’ tactics to try and squash a rider revolt ahead of race one at San Juan.

Laverty and a ‘majority’ of riders had decided they would not race in the hot temperatures today as the track is too slippery buy just before pitlane was due to open, the Irishman said Dorna bosses went running to the team managers to leverage their employees on to the grid.

“We had agreed with the organisers that we would meet. This morning it was better in cooler conditions but it was again treacherous in Superpole as the temperature went up so we knew we would talk with them again,” said Laverty.

“Suddenly, they did something very underhand and went to the team managers to put pressure on us all together to try and race.

We grouped together as riders, around 90 per cent, all stood in our clothes. There are always a couple of fools who want to try and ride for whatever reason. There weren’t many who wanted to and I’m disappointed with Jonathan.

“He is our representative and he let us down. I’m going to have to speak to him.”

Laverty also accused Dorna of bowing to the pressure of TV chiefs and using an unsafe track that had been re-surfaced by people who tarmac roads.

“This track should never have been homologated. What’s the point in having homologation standards, you look at a list of five items and they haven’t done anything close to that. Then there is peer pressure from TV or whatever, and then signing off on it on Thursday night.

“The asphalt level isn’t to FIM standard, they guys who did the track surface the street and they didn’t use the correct mix, so it’s coming up.

“In cooler conditions, I could lap in 1’41s, when it’s hot, it was 1’50, that’s like wet conditions. The track isn’t up to standard. It’s going to be cooler, we plan to race tomorrow, we always planned to race tomorrow, this was just about this race.”