BRADFORD motor cyclist David Brook is hoping for better luck this weekend at Donington Park after a nightmare Thundersport GB GP1 and Superstock 1000 meeting at Anglesey.

Severely handicapped by an intercostal muscle injury he picked up a week earlier in a British Superbike meeting at Cadwell Park, the Clayton Heights man said of his North Wales experience: "Phil (my mechanic) and I were in two minds as to whether to race because of the pain I was in.

"But thankfully the stretching of riding the bike on the test day on the Saturday and another day's rest had eased the ribs by Sunday morning.

"Heavy breathing is not really an option. I cracked a rib earlier in the season and that's painful, but this was on another level!

"I essentially had a week to recover, which wasn't enough, but with help from Kay (Fish) at KLS Active Lifestyle offering sports injury help, I was much improved!"

Brook said of the test day: "I was in a lot of pain and only managed three short sessions as a 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.

"The dilemma was I was inevitably going to be off the pace and didn't want to injure myself further for the sake of average results."

Brook added: "Sunday morning came and I managed to get a lap in early in the session, which put me sixth 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.

"In race one, the weather was perfect, I got a good start and made up two positions into turn two and then made a lunge into turn four.

"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 two, 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 one, which didn't allow me to capitalise after a poor qualifying.

"I brought it home in a safe but average fifth but at least I had more track time and something to work on for race three.

"I got a slightly better start there and settled in to a rhythm early on, which I built on over the first five laps.

"Unfortunately the gearbox let go exiting turn one. That was the icing on the cake it seems! I was third at the time with a 2.5 second gap to fourth and second was within eye shot.

"But, despite a disappointing trip to Wales, I’m feeling positive for Donington Park on Saturday."