Quigley Suffers Further Crash Set Back
Luke Quigley suffered another painful end to his race in the latest round on the
British Superstock Championship at Cadwell Park. Quigley had a huge high-side
whilst running fifth at Round 10 of the series and was lucky to escape without
serious injury.
Quigley, who has been in impressive form since jumping aboard his new
Formwise/Astro Racing BMW S1000RR, was playing catch-up all weekend. Having
already competed at the Lincolnshire circuit once this season, most riders had a
good set-up before the weekend. Unfortunately, Quigley had ridden a Suzuki back
then and was therefore starting from scratch.
Free practice saw Quigley post the 7th best lap time but he was less than happy
with the set-up of his machine. Quigley found the settings he had used at the
previous rounds were not working around the tight sections of the undulating
circuit.
In the first of the two qualifying sessions, Quigley was only able to place
11th. Improving things for the second session, on Sunday, Quigley managed to
register the 8th best combined time. With only three bikes to a row because of
the narrow circuit, this gave Quigley a third row start.
For Monday morning's warm-up session, Quigley decided to try a stiffer setting
to try and provide more responsive handling. With only 10 minutes to try the
changes, he decided to stick with the new settings for the race.
Starting from the middle of row three meant Quigley was caught up in the pack
into turn one, unable to make up any places. By the end of the first lap, he had
managed to climb one place, up to 7th. Desperate not to let the front runners
get away, Quigley set about mounting a charge. Passing Jimmy Storrar on lap 3
and then Tristan Palmer on lap 7, Quigley was closing in on the lead group of
four.
Unfortunately, Quigley's race ended abruptly on lap 8. As he exited the left
hander of Mansfield, Quigley had a big rear end slide. After almost catching the
rear, the bike pitched Quigley over the front of the bike. As Quigley bounced
off onto the grass, the bike went somersaulting down the track.
Quigley avoided any broken bones but was left batter and bruised following what
had been a fairly spectacular crash. After landing heavily on his left hand
side, his main injuries were to his left wrist, shoulder and whiplash injuries
to his neck.
After being released from the medical centre Quigley commented: "I am gutted
about another crash and not finishing for the second race in a row. I am feeling
pretty sore and my wrist is swollen, but I am lucky there was no serious damage
done. I don't know if the same can be said about the bike though. It looks like
it rolled a couple of times and it looks decidedly second-hand."
"We made a couple of changes to the rear end for warm-up this morning and it
felt OK. But after a few laps I was starting to struggle with grip at the rear.
It was feeling a bit too responsive and it didn't give me much warning when it
let go."
"We only have two weeks until the next round at Croft, so hopefully we will be
able to rebuild the bike in time. I think I should be recovered by then,
although I will have to see how I am in the morning, once the adrenalin has worn
off."
Quigley and his Formwise/Astro Racing team now have a race on their hands to be ready
in time for Round 11 at Croft in 10 days time. He remains 5th in the overall
standings.
Sam Farrington
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