Sittingbourne rider Luke Hopkins had a difficult start to his 2023 British Superbike campaign at Silverstone over the Easter weekend.
Getting to grips with his NPRacing Kawasaki ZX10R after two years on Honda machinery, Luke was just getting up to speed when he had a high-speed crash in free practice three on Saturday morning.
“After losing track time in FP1 due to a technical issue, FP2 ran smoothly and I was able to put in 27 laps, improving my time from FP1 by over a second. My best lap, a 56.104, was less than a second off my best time in the corresponding session lest year on the Honda, a bike I knew inside out having ridden it for two seasons, so I was pretty pleased with the progress we were making as were the team.
Chatting with the team and looking through some photos taken by our team photographer on Friday evening, it became clear that my riding position wasn’t quite right so that was something we would look at ahead of FP3 on Saturday morning.
“The Kawasaki is a physically big bike compared to the Honda, but strangely the riding position feels more cramped on the Kwacker, so we moved the pegs back quite a bit to give me more rom on the bike.
Saturday morning was sunny but there was a cold breeze and we were out early for FP3 so track temperature would be an issue. Five laps in to the session, and whilst I was still getting up to speed, I tucked the front going in to the fast left at Maggots on the approach to Aintree Hairpin.
I went down hard on my left arm and head knocking myself out in the process. In the medical centre I was diagnosed with concussion, a broken left arm and a dislocated little finger on my right hand. When we downloaded the data later on it showed I was doing 162 MPH when the front tucked.
Given the speed of the crash I got away relatively un-scathed. The bike however was another matter. It’s pretty much a write-off! Given the tight budget we are running on this season this is something we could all have done without.
My priority now is to get my arm plated this week. I’ll definitely miss the next round at Oulton Park but hopefully we can get the bike sorted in time for Donington and that’s where I’m aiming to be back.
Massive thanks to Hannah, my team and especially the BSB medics and marshals for looking after me on Saturday. I cannot thank you enough. Onwards and upwards as they say.”
Needless to say, it’s going to make a big dent in my budget to get the bike sorted. If you can spare a few quid to help me, get it sorted then please donate via my JustGiving page here:
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All the proceeds from my merchandise sales go towards my racing budget.
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Images courtesy of MotoAero Photography