Crescent
FIXI Suzuki's John Hopkins was involved in a
crash in the early stages of the first race
at round four of the World Superbike championship
at Monza today which left the Anglo-American
with a broken right foot.
Hopkins had a huge
high-side after only a couple of laps and it
was immediately evident that he was in some
discomfort from the crash. Hopkins was taken
straight for an X-ray where it revealed he had
suffered a fracture of his foot as well as some
torn muscles in his left hip. The incident involving
Hopkins, as well as some other crashes, and
the bad weather that has plagued Monza all weekend,
left the organisers with no option but to cancel
race one and hope that conditions improved for
the second race later in the day.
Race two did finally
get underway after a short delay, with Leon
Camier as Crescent FIXI Suzuki's only representative
on the grid. The race began under menacing Monza
skies and they didn't disappoint as rain caused
the race to be red-flagged and stopped at half
distance. Kawasaki's Tom Sykes was clear at
the front of the pack so was awarded half points
for his efforts - due to the shortened race
- with Camier bringing his Yoshimura powered
GSX-R home safely in 15th to score half-of-a-point.
Crescent FIXI Suzuki
now heads straight to Donington Park in England
for the European round of the WSBK championship
- to be held at the Leicestershire circuit next
weekend. The team will make a decision on the
fitness of Hopkins once the severity of his
injury has been assessed and will then make
an announcement over his ability to take part
or whether a substitute rider will be drafted
in for the race.
Leon Camier:
"Today was
embarrassing because I was running around with
people I knew I could beat. I could catch them
on the brakes, but once we exited the turns,
they left me for dead. We all knew that there
might be problems today if it was wet or partially
wet, because in practice and qualifying the
rain tyres destroyed themselves after about
five or six laps, so there was no way that they
would've lasted a race distance. We all hoped
for dry conditions, but they never happened.
The organisers were aware of the problems with
the wet tyres and both their decisions today
were the right ones."
John Hopkins:
"That was
not a good weekend. I got pretty banged up in
the first race crash and damaged my left hip
and broke a bone in my right foot. I don't know
what happened because the bike suddenly let
go without any warning. It's a big shame because
I had been really looking forward to this weekend
and continuing my improvement. Today's conditions
were treacherous and all the changes of weather
didn't help at all. There was no way we could
ride on the wets, so the right decisions were
made."
Jack Valentine -
Team Manager:
"It's difficult
to make complete sense of a day like today,
but thankfully it doesn't happen very often.
If the track was soaking wet and it was raining,
the wet tyres wouldn't have lasted long enough
- maybe just five or six laps. The cancellation
of race one and the stoppage of race two were
the correct choices, though obviously the crowds
weren't very happy. Hopkins made a fantastic
start in the first race, but was forced to take
avoiding action when Melandri got all crossed
up just in front of him. He dropped to 10th
but got back in the groove before crashing out.
Leon rode really grittily in both races I'm
happy he kept both wheels on the ground and
managed to finish. We've lost valuable track
time this weekend and that's frustrating, especially
as we've definitely improved our set-up in conditions
like these."
Monza Superbike
Race 1: Cancelled
Monza
Superbike Race 2: 1. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
14'08.800: 2. Leon Haslam (BMW) 14'18.509: 3.
Eugene Laverty (Aprilia) 14'18.919: 4. Marco
Melandri (BMW) 14'19.094: 5. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
14'19.327: 15. Leon Camier (Crescent FIXI Suzuki)
14'33.610.
World Championship
Classification: 1. Biaggi 97.5: 2. Carlos Checa
(Ducati) 95.5: 3. Sykes 91.5: 4. Melandri 72.5:
5. Jonathon Rea (Honda) 70. 17. Leon Camier
(Crescent FIXI Suzuki) 14.5. 21. John Hopkins
(Crescent FIXI Suzuki) 8.
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