By Phil Wain
August 29 2005

John McGuinness had a painful début in the colours of Vitrans Honda this weekend, with a first race crash eliminating him from round nine of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship. Held in perfect weather at Silverstone, Northamptonshire, the weekend looked promising, and hopes were high of scoring some solid points - but a seventh lap spill in the opening race resulted in a dislocated shoulder for McGuinness, and an abrupt end to his day.

The event got off to a damp start on Friday, but John was able to comfortably run inside the top ten and get used to the new Honda. With qualifying held on a dry circuit the lap times fell and, with a time of 1m27.328s, John found himself in 13th position after the first session. He was unable to go quicker in final qualifying but he only slipped back one place to 14th and, with pole position man Ryuichi Kiyonari also failing to improve, he was only 1.2 seconds adrift. Back amongst the championship’s finest, John was riding well and looking to grab a haul of points.

Sunday’s first race was restarted due to a three-rider crash and, in the re-run, John was running on the edge of the top ten when the front wheel tucked with no warning at the 130mph Copse Corner. Instead of a gravel trap, there was a concrete run off at the corner and John was flipped over in the air before coming down hard on his right shoulder, subsequently dislocating the joint. With a general anaesthetic the shoulder was put back in place, but it was an end to the day and, with two weeks’ rest ordered, John will now also miss the next round at Cadwell Park.

Reflecting on the meeting, which promised some good points, a disappointed John said: “Not the end to the weekend we had all hoped for! Everything had been going well, and I was confident of grabbing some good points, but as I tipped into Copse on the seventh lap the front wheel just went away from me and I was down. I knew the shoulder had popped out straightaway as it was incredibly painful.”

“It’s a real shame as the bike was working really well, and we’d been competitive throughout qualifying, but luck was against us on race day. Everyone in the Vitrans team worked hard and we were moving forward all the time, which makes it even more unfortunate that I’m going to have to sit out Cadwell. I’m just resting the shoulder at the moment, trying not to move it too much, and I’m sure we’ll be 100% ready for Oulton in three weeks time.”

Forced out of the race this weekend at Cadwell Park, John will now concentrate on getting fit for round eleven of the championship, which takes place at Oulton Park on Sunday, 11th September.