By Phil Wain
April 17 2006

Les Shand was forced to withdraw from round three of the National Superstock Championship at Thruxton this weekend, after a crash in final qualifying left the Scotsman unfit to ride. Having shaved almost a second off his lap time from the morning session, the 28-year-old crashed heavily at Allards with just three minutes of the session to go, and badly damaged the vertabrae in his back. After careful consideration on Sunday evening, he made the decision not to ride and headed back home before race day got underway.

The high speed curves of Thruxton were always going to prove a challenge for Les and the Barron Transport Honda, and this was borne out in first qualifying when a time of 1:20.486 left him in 21st position. Perhaps more telling was the fact that he was out of the top 25 through both speed traps - but he knew he could improve upon that with a few alterations between the sessions. Although the bike was working well through the slow corners, Les was struggling with the handling through the fast turns, so the decision was made to shorten the wheelbase whilst he also took a gamble on the gearing, which he hoped would improve the top end speed.

The changes worked, and Les immediately went quicker - dropping into the the 1:19s, and with just five minutes to go he moved up to 16th with a time of 1:19.767, moving him up to the fourth from of the row grid. However, having just gone under the three minutes to go board, Les lost the front end through the sweeping left hand Allards corner at over 120mph and, although he initially slid along the tarmac, when he hit the grass he went into numerous somersaults and landed heavily on his back. The footrests of the machine also dug into his legs, so it was a very second hand Les that returned to the pits. But after regaining his composure he commented:

“I couldn’t have tried any harder than what I did, and there’s no way I could get the Honda around any quicker. The changes we made between Q1 and Q2 definitely helped, but I was still having to give 110% just to get a decent lap time - I’ve never ridden harder in my career than what I’m doing at the moment. I don’t know if there was too much weight on the front end, or if there was too much rebound on the bike, but I lost the front a couple of times out on the back section of the circuit, and when it went for a third time at Allards there was no saving it. It was a high speed off and I’m in agony with my back at the moment - if I stay still it’s OK, but as soon as I move it’s very, very painful.

“If I’d qualified on the front two rows I’d probably have given it a go, but I got bumped down to the fifth row at the end and there’s no way you’re going to get a result from there. It’s very disapointing, obviously, and the bike’s a bit of a mess, but I’ll just head off home and concentrate on getting fit for Oulton Park in two weeks’ time. We need to have a think about where we go from here with the bike, as I know I can run up the front so, hopefully, I’ll be in a position to do that at Oulton.”

The fourth round of the National Superstock Championship takes place at Oulton Park in Cheshire, on Bank Holiday Monday, the 1st of May.