Eurosport - Fri, 09 May 13:27:00 2008
Brands Hatch this Sunday is going to answer a lot of questions left over from Monday's hectic, stoppage-strewn, accident-littered British Superbike round - not least of all; who is actually fully fit out there?
Off the top of my head, I can only think of two front runners who won't be carrying an injury, or twist, or scrape into Brands and the two in question are Shane Byrne and Michael Rutter.
By the end of raceday, Oulton was like a battlefield with the wounded being tended to as the sun set on a crunching display of brilliant big bike action.
Cal Crutchlow was battered with a dislocated ankle after his race two crash and may not even make the start line on Sunday. Well, that's the official line but knowing Cal, I'd be very surprised if he's not out there. The MotoGP boys got Jorge Lorenzo racing last weekend on two broken ankles and Cal won't want to show he's not as hard as the Spaniard.
Karl Harris was left even more sore after his two DNF's (and his broken right foot, the legacy of his horrible Thruxton crash, took another pounding), in the Superbike Cup both Dean Ellison and Steve Mercer took a tumble in the second race (and Dean now might lose a testicle as a result...)
Tom Sykes is still sore after his clash with Leon Haslam in the second race, and Leon (who had the 13 points he scored for fourth place in that second outing taken away for what was deemed dangerous riding, don't forget) has a badly bruised coccyx after a huge highside in Thruxton qualifying.
Adam Jenkinson won't be out for a long while yet, he was at Oulton after his horrible 140mph Thruxton crash at Church Corner and, as we reported on the live show that Sunday, was left with a smashed right forearm, six broken bones in his right hand and a snapped Scaphoid (the big, blood carrying bone) in his left wrist.
Leon Camier may have made the podium at Oulton, but don't let that cloud the fact that his shoulder injury picked up during pre-season testing is still not right. 90 percent there, Camier told me last week - but as that's a quote in racer speak I'd bet that to any &lsquonormal' person like you or I that would probably mean nearer 50 percent. Whatever the amount of pain Leon is feeling, it's not going to be easy out there around Brands' punishing twists and turns.
What it does mean is that we have the very tantalising prospect of bruised front runners trying to not only attack the Ducati duo of Byrne and the rejuevenated Rutter, but also trying their best to hold off countless attacks from the likes of Oulton podium finisher James Ellison, his teammate Guy Martin, the MSS Kawasaki pairing of Stuart Easton and Billy McConnell, Simon Andrews on the Jentin Yamaha R1, Scott Smart on the Hawk Kawasaki, Steve Plater on his AIM R1 and others.
Hmmmmm, interesting stuff, especially when you throw in the excellent John Laverty on the John Hackett-prepared 1098R Superbike Cup bike too.
Anything, absolutely anything, could happen at Brands Hatch on Sunday. Tune in people, this is probably going to be the best one yet - and we've had four cracking races already...
Tony Carter / Eurosport