Graeme Gowland (Benjan Racing Team Honda) is probably the least known of the five-strong British line-up of riders in this year’s Supersport World Championship. The 22 year-old from Hexham is tackling his first full Supersport season in 2008 after taking part in three races last year. Gowland currently lies twentieth in the championship with three points to his name after finishing 13th at Philip Island.

At last week’s Valencia test he had the bizarre experience of being fastest in the second timed Supersport session on day 1, but ending the session in the Clinica Mobile.

Gowland had highsided at turn three and got tangled up in his machine. He crashed hard enough to take the outer covering from his right boot off, and leaving the carbon-fibre inner skeleton of the boot exposed to take the impact on the tarmac.

The inner boot did its job well enough to prevent a fracture, but Gowland himself took a real beating.

"My boot really did its job," said Gowland, "because I thought I had broken my ankle for sure. I’ve broken bones motocrossing before and I felt that kind of tingling you get when you’ve fractured something. The good news is that the X-Ray shows it is OK - just bashed and bruised. I’m working to be ready for the race itself at Valencia because although I’m British I feel that this is my home track, because of my previous experiences racing in the Spanish Championship!"