Gary Johnson
Gaz suffers a set back in his preparation for the Macau GP.
I’ve been desperate to get some more riding in before we head off to the Macau GP so when the boss said we were going to do the last round of the British Superstock Championship at Brands Hatch I was well up for it. We turned up with the same Superstock bike that we used at the TT and we knew it was going be hard work as all the other lads have been at it all year, getting their bikes exactly where they need them to be for the short circuits. Our Stocker is really good though and we have made some awesome improvements with the geometry of the bike this year so our times improved every session at Brands.
There’s some seriously fast lads at that level so I wasn’t too disappointed to qualify 32nd and when it rained on race day I knew we would be in with a chance of a decent result as we have a mega wet setup for the big Kawasaki. Even though the track was completely soaked, the bike felt perfect on the outlap and I felt comfortable straight away – a few of the others looked like Bambi on ice. We were sat on the grid for a little while before the warm up lap, probably too long, because as soon as I opened the throttle coming out of Graham Hill Bend, the first left hander, the bike snapped sideways and spat me over the top. I know what you’re thinking, what sort of tit crashes on the warmup lap? Well I do. So instead of getting the good result that we expected, I ended up cold and wet in the med centre with a fractured T6 vertebra.
The crash was five weeks before the Macau GP so I have got my work cut out if I’m going to be fit in time for that. The first week after the crash I was barely mobile and coughing like a little schoolgirl because it hurt to put any welly behind it, but I went to see my old mate Aiden at the ITRM Ciropractic Clinic in Doncaster and in just a week I’ve made some unbelievable improvements. I did some press-ups this morning (I think my back would have exploded if I’d have tried that a week ago), I had a go at some sit-ups and I’ve even been swimming, I’m no Michael Phelps, but we are definitely going in the right direction. Aiden reckons if we keep working hard I should be fine for Macau. And when he says working hard he means it, you wouldn’t believe how rough he is with me, considering I have a fractured vertebra, but he just keeps on telling me I have to keep everything moving, so that the muscles don’t seize up and go stiff.
I’m looking forward to seeing how we get on when we finally get to Macau as I know the improvements we have made to the bike will make a real difference around the Macau GP Circuit. It’s a real good bunch of lads from the Lee Hardy Briggs Equipment Kawasaki squad that will be looking after me over there so fingers crossed we can make something happen. Anyway that’s enough from me, I’m going to see if I can manage a few more press-ups.