Millsport Ducati’s Jakub Smrz very nearly didn’t make it out on track for the two MCE British Superbike races at Oulton Park yesterday, as he was suffering from severe back pain.

The former World Superbike rider was in some discomfort throughout free practice and qualifying and an old injury came back to haunt him causing him a lot of pain in his back – so much so that after warm-up Smrz was thinking of retiring from races one and two.

But with some help from the BSB physio’s he was able to ride through the pain to finish tenth and eleventh. Considering he wasn’t going to take part in either outing the Czech Republic rider is just happy that he managed to bag some points – but admits the bike could have been faster around the Cheshire circuit.

"It was an old injury and I just moved something and I thought it would get better yesterday. After warm up I felt I wouldn’t be able to do the races, but the BSB physio helped me, as I was in so much pain,” said Smrz, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.

“Race one was not so bad as I had pain killers, but in both races moving around was quite difficult, as my back was stiff. In this situation a podium would have been a dream because of my back, and I felt that were not fast enough either. But for the situation its the best we could have done.

“Both races we used different tyres and settings, which proved to be useful as it will be good for Snetterton as that’s one of my favourite tracks too."