'Arm pump' denies TT star Conor Cummins points finish at Cadwell
Thursday 01 September 2011
TT
Arm pump denied TT star Conor Cummins what would have been well-deserved championship points in the latest round of the National Superstock 1000cc Championship.
Racing at Cadwell Park over the Bank Holiday weekend, the Manxman finished 19th in the ninth round of the series. He had been confident of a points finish, but slipped backwards through the field as he fell victim to severe arm pump.
The Blackhorse Kawasaki rider put in his best qualifying performance of the season, 16th on the grid, and started the race strongly.
A solid start saw him maintain 16th for 4 laps as he battled with fellow Manxman Gavin Hunt and Daniel Johnson for the final championship points. Just after half race distance though, Cummins began to run into trouble as his arm severely 'pumped up' and he was powerless to do anything about it as a number of riders overtook him.
With a third of the race still to run, Cummins was back in 19th and with the red flag coming out early due to a spill, this was his finishing position.
He said:
“Without wishing to sound like I'm repeating myself, it's been another frustrating race for me as I felt really confident after qualifying that I was going to score some points this weekend.”
“This was the one place where I thought I may struggle with my injuries, but that wasn't the case at all and during both free practice and qualifying I felt really good. We worked really hard on getting the handling right in time for final qualifying and it worked a treat so I had the confidence to have a real good go.”
“It was comfortably my best qualifying performance of the year so I felt good for Monday’s race and was desperate to get into the points. I got a decent start to the race and was just sitting with the pack, but then, for the first time in my career, I got arm pump and my forearm was literally solid so there was nothing I could do and gradually slipped back.”
“All I can think of was what I was overcompensating a bit and using my arms too much to muscle the bike through all the changes in direction. Cadwell is probably the hardest circuit on the body, but there are again positives to take out of the weekend and we're continually chipping away both with the bike and with my riding so we're definitely getting there.”
“I'm really happy with the bike now so a big thanks to the team for all their work whilst I've again taken a stride forward as shown in qualifying. If we can just piece everything together in the final three rounds, I'm sure all our hard work will be rewarded with some good points scoring finishes.”