Reilly Rues Bad Fortune
Kelvin Reilly suffered an unfortunate blow to his bid for the 2009 KTM RC8
SuperCup crown at the latest round at Knockill. After a massive get-off in
qualifying, Reilly was again left to try limit his losses. Injuries to his left
leg and foot, to add to his broken right foot from the previous round, Reilly
had to be helped onto and off Inmoto Corse machine.
The weekend could have been over for Reilly just four laps into qualifying. As
he began to ratchet up the pace, he crashed out in a big way at the hairpin. His
KTM RC8 high-sided him on the exit of the final turn and Reilly landed hard on
his left leg. With his session over, Reilly would start from a lowly 12th place
on the grid.
Thanks to the hard work of his Inmoto Corse team, Reilly's bike was rebuilt in
time for Saturday afternoon's first race . Albeit on crutches, and requiring
assistance to climb onto his bike, Reilly was fit enough to race.
Reilly made a decent start to the race, gaining three places on the opening lap.
Showing impressive pace Reilly was able to pick up another two places by the end
of lap three. Once up into seventh, Reilly began to make up time on the riders
in front, but unfortunately his race was cut short by an oil leak. Reilly was
shown the black and orange flag just 7 laps into the race as his machine began
to smoke.
In the second race, Reilly failed to make such a good start, consolidating his
12th place on the opening lap. After settling into a bit of a rhythm, Reilly
made his way up to 9th place. Struggling with the pain, Reilly gritted his teeth
and tried to make the best of a bad situation. On the final lap, Reilly had
moved up into seventh before being out-dragged up to the finish line, leaving
him 8th.
Reilly has now dropped to second in the overall standings but is only a point of
the lead. He will hope to put an end to his bad luck next time out at local
circuit Brands Hatch.
Reilly:
"It looks like it is my turn for the bad luck. I want to thank my Inmoto team
for all of their hard work again this weekend, rebuilding the bike in the short
time before the first race."
"It’s just unfortunate that our weekend started badly with the qualifying crash
and it had a knock on effect from there! We have a 5 week gap until the next
race, which allows me time to recuperate and get back to full fitness for Brands
Hatch, which is my favourite track on the calendar."
Sam Farrington
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