British Superbike News

Cadwell Park

The SMT Honda rider, Tom Grant, suffered an horrific accident last time out at Knockhill, when in race two, he was hit by falling rider, David Johnson.

Johnson lost control of his Honda and ploughed into the side of Grant heading into the first corner, surprisingly, Grant suffered no broken bones but his arm was crushed resulting in surgery to reduce pressure on his swelling hand.

Team owner Robin Croft said after the race,

“What can I say, bad luck strikes again for SMT Honda!  Qualifying went really well for us and we had a good bike set-up for both wet and dry and Tom did a great job to get 12th on the grid.  In the first race, he had ninth place in the bag but he started to get a bit of arm pump in the last few laps and he was unable to stop a couple of riders getting by.  Nevertheless, 11th was still our best finish of the year and it added more points to our total.

Race two was a different affair but although Tom didn’t get a great start he was up inside the points when he got taken out.  Tom was riding well but simply got hit by a fallen rider and he didn’t know what hit him.  He’s in a lot of pain right now and although x-rays have shown nothing is broken, his arm got crushed by the impact and his hand was swollen up so he’s gone to hospital for an operation to relieve the pressure.  At this moment in time, it looks unlikely that we’ll be at Cadwell Park but we’ll have to see.  The bike is working well and we’ve got a good, young rider in Tom so let’s hope we can be back out on the grid soon.”

In April the team’s original rider, Adam Jenkinson had a huge accident at Thruxton, resulting in the rider breaking his right wrist.

He underwent surgery at Southampton hospital where he had a metal brace fitted to the outside of his wrist in preparation for an operation the next day before having it set in a cast.

He has been out of action since the accident and Grant has been riding for the team as a replacement until Jenkinson is fit enough to return.