Gary Johnson
After a pretty nasty crash and some serious friction burns to my leg, courtesy of Michael Rutter’s rear tyre at the Oulton Park BSB round (that you might have read about in my column in issue 354), it was straight over to the NW200. It was always going to be an uphill struggle, trying to race a bike with an injury like that. I couldn’t even get my leathers on unless I was bandaged up to high heaven, and even then it was really painful. The back of my knee was constantly filling with fluid, making bending my leg a nightmare, but we soldiered on and did the best we could.
I had to pull out of one of the races on the big bike as the pain was making it really difficult to concentrate on the job in hand, but we finished the 600w race and managed to put some solid laps in towards the end of the race. In all fairness I was feeling reasonably good for the Superbike race at the end of the day, but they pulled us all off the grid and cancelled the race because of the weather.
From the NW200 we went straight to the Isle of Man for the 2019 TT, and I knew it was going to be a tough one; they told me that the burns I’ve sustained are going to take months to heal properly, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me. In all fairness the leg was a little bit better at the TT and the poor weather, which caused practice to be cancelled on four nights out of five, probably worked in my favour a little bit as it meant we weren’t having to bang the laps in every night. Iwasjusthappytohavetohave
a bit of extra time for my leg to recover.
I spent every night sleeping with my leg up on the headboard, to try and get the fluid at the back of my knee to go down. I went to see a physio every day and got my bandages changed to give myself the very best chance when it came to riding the bike, but it was still hard work. The big bikes are a real handful to muscle round the TT course, and only having one fully functioning leg meant I was struggling to turn the bike at high speed – so much so that I ended up bending the left footpeg by putting so much weight through it, to compensate for not being able to use my right leg.
The 600 and the lightweight weren’t so bad, as they are a little easier to turn. I really enjoyed riding Ryan Farquhar’s lightweight and I think we would have been on for a really good result if we hadn’t gone the wrong way with the gearing for the race. I finished seventh in the Lightweight TT, but I’m sure it could have been a podium.
The TT is over now and it was a struggle, but I think we put in a solid performance under the circumstances, and the team made sure I had everything I needed to be as comfortable as possible on the bike. Road racing can be a cruel sport, and whilst we were on the Island we were given the sad news that a fellow TT competitor, Daley Mathison, unfortunately lost his life after a crash in the Superbike race. My thoughts are with his friends and family.
Now I’m home, I’m keen to get my leg fixed properly, rather than bodged and bandaged back up, so I’m booked in to see what they can do for me this week – the classic TT is only a few months away and I’m determined to put a better showing in on the big Suzuki.