Dazed but Amazed.

Yesterday was the 5th round of 8 of the Maxxis British Championship at Foxhills. My day got off to a "rocky" start literally as I believe I hit a rock on the face of one of the jumps causing me to lose control of the bike in the timed practice session. I took a hard crash and sustained a bang to the head, a stiff neck, and a badly jammed thumb.

After regaining consciousness, I was completely distraught and had no short-term memory whatsoever. I was lucky to have qualified for the mains as I had not even made a fast lap and the practice session was ending. Even in such a clouded state of mind, the only thing I could think about was the championship standings and keeping my grip on the red plate.

Before the first race, I had recovered some of my memory and, with some physiotherapy by Dave Dougan, my neck loosened up a bit. With last gate choice, I was on the far outside. I got a great start and soon found my way into 4th place. I was able to build a bit of a gap, a safe zone, between myself and the rest of the pack. On the last few laps, I was not at my best as I felt really dizzy after my head injury. I finished the race in 4th place.

In the second moto I got a nearly perfect start from the outside and came around the first turn in 2nd position. But in the third turn I was cleaned out and got up in dead last position. In the short 20 minute + 2 lap time span, I was able to come back to 10th place. I was a bit disappointed to have such a great start taken away from me, but overall I was satisfied with the end result.

I got another brilliant start in the third moto and soon made the pass on Alex Erikkson for the lead. Bryan Mackenzie didn't give up easily as he kept me in check for the first 3-4 laps. By about halfway through the race I had established a comfortable lead. The race was rather uneventful for me, but a last lap crash by Neville Bradshaw put me on the podium in third place with a 4-10-1. I couldn't believe it! And, even better than that, I still have the championship points lead by 7 points. To be able to turn such a bad start to the morning into a podium result was really amazing to me. I proved to myself that you can always do more than you give yourself credit for.

This week I am focusing on my recovery with some physiotherapy in prepartation for the upcoming GP in Lommel-- one of the gnarliest of the whole season.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

--Zach