Rob Mac Racing’s Karl Harris is a hardy northerner, and we say that with the relative protection of two seas and three countries’ distance. Despite being hit in the face and chest by an errant GSX-R1000 at about 120mph at Thruxton yesterday, Harris is already thinking about Oulton Park. Hard indeed…
During the opening few laps of the second superbike race yesterday, Rizla Suzuki’s Tom Sykes had a coming together with Leon Haslam at Seagrave corner, which resulted in Sykes being nerfed off. No problem there, you would think.
However, Harris was in close attendance at the time, and received an uppercut from the bike but managed to get up and walk away relatively unscathed. He broke his nose and three metatarsals in his foot.
He said: "I’m gutted. I don’t feel too bad to be honest apart from very sore knees and one of my ankles. I haven’t really taken it all in yet but I do look like I was boxing in Vegas with Calzaghe! I’ll be back with a vengeance for Oulton Park, looking for those results we are working so hard for."
And Harris should know. Part of his pre-season training regime included sessions with Ricky Hatton’s trainer Gynn Rhodes, and he even got in the ring with The Hitman himself!
Team manager Rob McElnea said: "First, we are just concerned for Karl’s welfare, he has bounced back from a horrifying crash and will no doubt be very sore for a few days. We have definitely been down on our luck this weekend. Race 1 ended prematurely with a mechanical problem that put Karl out of the race whilst he was in a podium position. Our focus was on the second race. Karl put in another strong performance before being pushed wide off the track, rejoining then getting knocked off his bike by a flying Superbike a few laps later."