E2E Racing News

18 August 2008

First crash of the Season for Lee

Lee goes down heavy on his second lap round Castle Combe and dislocates his right shoulder...

"We'd entered the Sound of Thunder and Superbike Grand National at Castle Combe. I've always really enjoyed racing at the circuit and was looking forward to a great weekend."

"On Saturday we awoke to a wet circuit and the Sound of Thunder qualifying was first out on circuit. With the weather looking very uncertain I was determined to get a quick lap in sooner rather than later and so started to push right from the off. Unfortunately this was my downfall, although it was not raining the circuit was very greasy and on approaching one of the chicanes (whilst still upright) I lost the front and went down heavy. Luckily both I and the bike slid down the track (what seemed like for miles). When I got to my feet I realised I'd dislocated my shoulder (again!).."

"As I walked to the side of the track with the marshals I knew I needed to get my shoulder back in as quickly as possible and after a few attempts it went back in and the gut wrenching pain went away a little."

"We got the bike back to the awning and started to assess the damage to the bike, I reached down to put the bike on the front paddock stand and my shoulder dislocated again - I can only assume I hadn't got it back in fully at the side of the track.,"

"This time it took me what seemed like forever to get it back in, all the time having to concentrate on not throwing up - the pain was unreal - anyway I got it back in and decided to sit down for a while!!"

"Dad and my new technical expert Ross (my brother) beavered away on the bike while I contemplated whether we could race the rest of the weekend - I decided to sit out the first Sound of Thunder race and analyse my fitness later on - as it turned out this was a good call as the first race was neither wet or dry and would not have been enjoyable!"

"As time wore on my should felt a bit better and the real pain I was feeling was from my right knee, which must have took a right bashing when I crashed, we decided to go out in the 2nd Sound of Thunder race and see how I faired. As I had only done 1 lap in qualifying I was 19th on the grid - so it was going to be an interesting race"

"I worked my way up to 6th spot and by the end of the race was doing lap times very similar to the top 4 (except Alistair Fagan who had destroyed the rest of the field to take the win). I was struggling quite a bit as my right arm felt very weak and was not happy with the bike getting out of shape too much as I was uncertain I could react if it got too out of shape."

"The last session on the Saturday was free practice for the Superbike Grand National, I went out and went nearly a second faster than I'd done in the Sound of Thunder race, I was 14th fastest overall, with the majority of the people ahead of me being BSB regulars - so I was quite happy - although frustrated at the fact I was being impaired by the state of my shoulder."

"On Sunday the SuperBike Grand National timed qualifying was first out on track and the track was damp in places, I was not 100% committed and feeling a bit hesitant when reaching areas with damp spots - I qualified 16th for the two main races of the day."

"We then had the final Sound of Thunder race (back on 19th on the grid for the start again) and I was determined to finish on the podium. I had a great race, but took too long to get through the slower traffic and finished forth - again doing lap times equal to the riders ahead of me."

"We had a great Superbike Grand National race 1, I had some good battles with the riders around me and managed to finish 13th overall. But really struggled after the 7th lap as the injury's started to take it out of me"

"We decided to finish on a relative high and not try and compete in the 15 lap final of the Superbike Grand National - we have a big weekend ahead of us this coming weekend at Pembrey and decided to give my shoulder a better chance of being fit by resting it"

"Big thanks to the team - Mum, Dad, Ross, Abi, Lou and Jackie (who was stuck at home dog sitting!) - and thanks to Colin Young for his hospitality and Kevin Jones for his forever entertaining company!!!"

Category: Racing News
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posted by The Team

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