TT hero Conor Cummins 'chuffed' after racing return
Conor Cummins has returned to racing for the first time since his terrible crash in the 2010 Senior TT – and showed he has made a remarkable recovery.
The Manxman suffered career-threatening injuries while dicing for the lead in the Senior Race last year. Despite the extent of his injuries, Cummins was determined to return to racing and highlighted his home event, the 2011 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy, as his chief ambition.
His recovery has amazed many and this weekend, just 10 months after the high speed crash, Cummins was able to take on his first race. He travelled to Brands Hatch for the opening round of the British short circuit season to contest the National 1000cc Superstock Championship.
Riding the new ZX-10R Blackhorse Kawasaki Cummins was rewarded with an excellent finish and four solid days of practice and race action that saw him getting quicker and quicker as the weekend wore on. Ultimately he secured a superb 18th place.
With hot, sunny conditions throughout practice and qualifying, Cummins got his weekend underway with the 16th fastest time in the opening qualifying session on Saturday. With hotter track conditions on Sunday he was unable to better his time and ended with the 17th fastest time in his group.
That meant he had to go into the 14-lap ‘Shoot-Out’ race to try and qualify for Monday’s feature race, but, grateful for the extra track time to help continue to build his fitness up, he put in a great ride to claim second, taking his place on the grid on Monday.
Cummins lined up in 30th place on the grid for the feature 24-lap race, but a brilliant start saw him elevated up the order only for the red flag to come after just three laps due to an incident involving teammate Victor Cox and Jonathan Howarth.
For the re-started race, reduced to 16-laps, Cummins lined up 18th on the grid and moved up to 16th, on the brink of the points. He didn’t quite have the pace to close the gap to the five-man group dicing for 11th. Instead, he found himself fighting it out with Gerard Kinghan and Seb Bulpin and he ended up crossing the line in 18th position, an excellent effort given he only came out of hospital last August and has spent the entire winter months fighting to get fit.
Cummins said:
“To get that first race out of the way feels absolutely brilliant and all weekend I’ve just been getting better and better. Practice went well and although the second qualifying session didn’t quite go to plan, I was glad to get the extra mileage in the Shoot Out race and we were able to try a few more things with the bike which really helped with the set-up.”
“I achieved my goal of getting into the race proper and after that anything else was going to be a bonus.”
“As it turned out, I got a mega start and achieved more than I thought I could. It’s very much work in progress, but I feel like a racer again and to be battling it out close to the points after all I’ve been through is pretty good going in my book.”
“I’ve got to say a big thanks to the team for making my life so much easier this weekend as they’ve absolutely worked their backsides off. I’ve also got to say a massive thank you to them and all my sponsors for sticking by me through the hard months I’ve had.”
“To sum it up, I’m chuffed to bits!”