Dean Thomas

Dean Thomas has once again had to sit on the side lines due to the cracked ribs he picked up at Knockhill. He took part in the first two free practice sessions which were held in wet conditions but as soon as he was faced with dry track time it became apparent that his injury was still an issue. He has passed his Samsung Suzuki over to his team-mate Sean Emmett. “I went out in the rain and that was fine, I could do all the laps I needed to do. I went out in the dry for six or seven laps and my ribs were playing up, it has only been two weeks since I cracked them so I think they are just not ready. It is a bit of a shame really because I was hoping to move forward this weekend and Oulton Park is one of my favourite tracks, we have a good tyre allocation from Dunlop and all the good things. I won’t live up to what we need which is not good,” he explained, “Even though they are predicting rain for tomorrow, if it rained “Yes” I could ride but if it dries then there is no way I’ll last twenty laps. I had no option really but to step back and let Sean ride the bike really. He is pleased but what could I do!”

With back to back race weekends he is now in a race to be fit for round nine of the Championship at Mallory Park in just one week’s time. “I hope I am fit. I thought I’d be ok for here to be honest. Friday I didn’t really go forward at the pace I was going the other week. I thought I should be alright and yesterday I had a few aches and then when I got out there in the dry it was a damn sight worse, so who knows. I’m hoping and praying that a week will be enough. Give it a week and that will be three weeks from the injury. Three weeks isn’t a long time for a rib injury but hopefully it is enough so fingers crossed.”

While Emmett is riding his machine, Thomas is left to assist in hospitality, “I think I’m doing a bit of everything. I’ll spend some time in the garage and try and make things as easy as I can with Sean and the bikes. I’ll spend some time in hospitality helping – I’ll be a general gofer!” he smiled.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 9:11 am and is filed under Rider Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.