If Ben Spies didn’t have enough to contend with still suffering with his damaged shoulder, the Texan developed a twinge in his chest which almost spelled the end of his home race at Austin.

The Ignite Ducati rider thinks it is because he is over-compensating for the still-recovering joint and said that towards the end of warm-up, it felt like he had been stabbed.

“I had a little problem with a nerve in my chest for some reason. I don’t know if it’s from overcompensating for my shoulder problem, which is actually getting a lot better compared to Qatar,” said Spies.

“That said, two laps before the end of the warm-up, I had a twinge in my chest. It was like a knife, so we went to the clinic and they worked on me a lot and got me ready for the race. I tried as hard as I could during the race, but it wasn’t enough. At eight laps to go, it was either come in or salvage whatever points we could. We need to work harder and get back to 100 per cent and just keep working with the bike.”