The World Superbike races at Assen in the Netherlands turned out to be a disaster for Canadian racer Brett McCormick.
He crashed out in the first corner melee in the first race, then also crashed in the second, after a collision with previous championship leader Carlos Checa.
Conditions were bad in both races, intermittent rain creating very a difficult situation for all competitors. McCormick was 11th at the time of the accident, Checa having already pitted to change tires due to changing track conditions.
Reports have McCormick suffering from a broken thumb, facial injuries, and fractures to the C5 and C6 vertebrae. As serious as that sounds, if the fractures haven’t affected the spinal cord nerves, as it seems at this point, the healing process can be quite straightforward – more investigation and diagnosis are obviously required at this point.
You can see a YouTube clip of the crash below. Some viewers are blaming Checa for the crash, others are saying it was McCormick’s error.
As for the racing, it was a mess with the changing weather conditions; many of the top riders crashed out in both rounds. Sylvain Guintoli, McCormick’s teammate on the Efferbert Liberty Ducati team, took the first win, while Jonathan Rea on the Ten Kate Honda grabbed the second victory.
In the first race, Guintoli (a past British Superbike champion) was followed to the podium by Davide Gugilaino and Carlos Checa, both of the Althea team (making it an all-Ducati podium). The race was a disaster, run in two parts due to the constantly radically-changing weather conditions.
In the second go-around, Irish racer Jonathan Rea took his Ten Kate Honda to a convincing win over Guintoli, followed by his fellow Irishman Eugene Lavery on the factory Aprilia. The weather conditions played havoc with both qualifying and race positions. Results for the championship after the two events follow.
Championship positions after six of 28 races:
1. Max Biaggi, Italy, Aprilia Racing, 92
2. Carlos Checa, Spain, Althea Ducati, 91
3. Tom Sykes, Great Britain, Kawasaki Racing, 79
4. TIE, Sylvain Guintoli, France, Effenbert-Liberty Ducati, and Marco Melandri, Italy, BMW Motorrad, 66
6. Jonathan Rea, United Kingdom, 65
7. Leon Haslam, United Kingdom, BMW Motorrad, 58
8. Eugene Lavery, United Kingdom, Aprilia Racing, 56
9. Jacob Smrz, Czech Republic, 39
10. Davide Giugiano, Althea Ducati, 37.
Next race, May 6, Italy, Misano.
I think Carlos has 91 points, not 9!
Speedy Recovery Brett!
Speedy recovery, Brett!
IGood luck Brett. Funny I tried to find out the results late Sunday and his name was nowhere to be found.
shit … get well Brett