Brands Hatch GP - Round 6 - 2015

Sorry for the delay in writing this race report. We have had a pretty faultless season up until Brands Hatch GP. Unfortunately we had our stroke of bad luck at round 6 of the championship. We had a gearbox issue in the first practice session which meant we didn’t turn any laps. The team worked hard to sort out the problems, which we thought we had fixed. Session 2 went much better and we were running quite a good pace considering it was our first run out on track. However on the Saturday for qualifying, we had gearbox issues yet again. This was challenging as the team had found what they thought was the problem with the first gearbox. They had to dig a little deeper but they found some other issues as well. I’d managed to get 2 laps in qualifying before the gearbox failed, so at least we didn’t have to start from the back of the grid. But I was much further back than we wanted, as 12th Evo and 22nd overall. The team got the bike sorted for the 12 lap sprint race and I was happy to move up to 7th, gaining in confidence the more laps I turned. This put us in a better position for Sundays feature race and I was buzzing to turn the weekend around and finish with some strong results.

I started the race 8th Evo, as our grid positions go off our lap times from Race 1. I got a great start and on lap two I was 4th Evo, having a good battle with 5th and 6th. We battled strong all race, changing positions every lap. With only 3 laps to go, the rider in 3rd had bike issues and he started slowing down quite a lot. We were all pushing hard to catch him and fight for that last spot on the podium. I came in to the hairpin, carrying a little too much speed and just lost the front in the middle of the turn. The crash itself was very small but because we were battling so hard, there was a rider right behind me as I fell. Unfortunately he had nowhere to and he ran over my back, falling off as well. I got taken care of by the great marshals and medical team on circuit and can’t thank them enough for their help in the initial response.

The doctors and medical staff who work within the British Superbike paddock were great in quickly working out what to do with me. They decided it was best that I get airlifted to St George’s Hospital in London. From there I spent two nights in intensive Care and another 4 nights on the ward. They discovered 2 fractures in my back, on the T4 and T11 Vertebrae. Also a laceration to my liver which caused some internal bleeding. I’m back at home now, resting up and taking it very easy (much to my displeasure!) I have to sit out this weekend’s round at Thruxton but hope I can be back for Cadwell Park in 4 weeks time. I’m seeing a specialist on Wednesday to get some work done to help speed up my recovery. I’d like to thank all the marshals and medical personal at the track that helped me, the air ambulance, the doctors and nurses at St George’s Hospital, my team for sorting out getting everything back home for me and sticking by me, my family and my fiancé’s family and to my fiancé Katie, for being by my side all week and looking after me 100% making sure I can rest up and recover as quickly as possible. Also a thank you to my sponsors and supporters for supporting me and their kind messages! It means a lot and I can’t wait to get back on the bike and come back fighting fit and show what we can do!