Harris And Sykes Avoid Major Injury
Added on Monday, April 21st, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Harris walked away with only minor injuries
Karl Harris and Tom Sykes left Thruxton with little more than a few bruises and dented BSB title hopes after surviving a spectacular crash in Sunday’s second race.
Race two of the season opener was stopped temporarily as Karl Harris required on-track treatment after a huge collision in a three-way battle for fourth place.
Yorkshire rider Tom Sykes, chasing down Leon Haslam, clipped the back of the Honda rider before his Suzuki flew from underneath him and crashed into Harris’ Yamaha to bring a halt to proceedings.
Harris walked away from the incident with only minor injuries but was understandably shaken by the event.
“I am gutted, but I don’t feel too bad to be honest apart from sore knees and a bad ankle,” said Harris
“I haven’t taken it all in yet, but I feel like I have been in a boxing ring with [Joe] Calzaghe! I will be back with a vengeance at Oulton Park.”
Suzuki rider Sykes, who immediately ran to Harris’ aid after the incident, also walked away unscathed and indeed he briefly led after the restart before finishing in eighth position.
“In race two I got a superb start from the third row of the grid and was up to fourth place,” said Sykes.
“The bike felt really good as we had made some changes from race one.
“Unfortunately Leon Haslam changed his line in front of me and I had nowhere to go and ended up crashing heavily. I was a little battered and bruised but otherwise OK, so I got out in the restarted race on my spare bike and started from the front row.
“I got the hole-shot and thought I could settle in but struggled for rear grip and the tyre started delaminating. The vibration got too bad so I dropped off the pace and just nursed it home for the points.
“I’m really gutted for my team as they worked hard this weekend and we didn’t get the result we had hoped for.”
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