What an absolute nightmare meeting! I've had a pretty solid season so far with the exception of Cadwell earlier in the year bad but Anglesey isn't far behind!

The meeting was a struggle, I had a huge crash at Cadwell the week before with BSB which left me with damage to my Intercostal Muscle (this is the muscle between the ribs which allows them to move and flex). In a word (or two), very painful! Heavy breathing is not really an option, I cracked a rib earlier in the season and that's painful but this is on another level! I essentially had a week to recover which wasn't enough but with help from Kay at KLS Active Lifestyle offering sports injury help I was much improved!

Saturday was the test day. I was in a lot of pain and only managed 3 short test session as change of direction was very painful, I made a change to the gearing which helped the lap times but obviously there wasn't much time for finer adjustments. Phil, my mechanic, and I were in two minds whether to race being honest. I was inevitably going to be off the pace and I didn't want to injure myself further for the sake of average results. 

Sunday morning came and thankfully the stretching of riding the bike on the test day and another day’s rest had eased the ribs. I managed to get a lap in early in the session which put me 6th in stock but quite honestly it wasn't good enough      having shown the form I had at Rockingham but it's the best I could do given the circumstances. I had had good results from worse positions though so I had to remain positive for Race 1. 

Race 1 was here and the weather was perfect, I got a good start and made up 2 positions into turn 2 and then made a lunge into turn 4. I just had to make up for the poor qualifying now that my body was stretched up. But it didn't work, I asked too much of the tyre and ran wide and when I got on the gas on the mucky part of the track I crashed! Schoolboy error. 

Phil got the bike fixed for Race 2 only needing minor repairs as it was a low speed spill and thankfully the crash hadn't   agitated my injury too much but I had my work cut out, not helped by being pushed wide into turn 1 which didn't allow me to capitalise after a poor qualifying. I brought it home in a safe but average 5th. At least I had more track time and something to work on for Race 3. 

Race 3 came and I got a slightly better start and settled in to a rhythm early on which I built on over the first 5 laps. Unfortunately the gearbox let go exiting turn 1. That was the icing on the cake it seems! I was 3rd at the time with a 2.5s gap to 4th and 2nd within eye shot. Despite a disappointing trip to Wales, I’m feeling positive for Donington Park on 26th September!

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