Allerton injured
The third round of ST. George Motorcycle Club’s Summer Night Series was over just as it began for Glenn Allerton on Friday evening at a sultry Sydney Motorsports Park.
The three-time Aussie Superbike Champion was using the event to help prepare for the upcoming ASBK season on his GT Racing BMW M 1000 RR.
The day started well enough, Allerton on the front row after setting a 1m30.940 in the ten-minute qualifying session.
However, his day ended less than an hour later…
Allerton was battling for position on the second lap of the opening race when things turned ugly on the exit of turn four. We spoke to him about the incident.
Glenn Allerton
“It was the first time on the bike for me this year so I actually went out to the track day before to do some sessions, but there was an accident there. So I hadn’t got that much time on the bike.
“The track was a bit patchy and I am sure there were spots of rain on my bars the whole time during qualifying. So I only really did one fast lap. I was happy to set a pretty good time like a 30.9. It’s not bad when you haven’t been on the bike for a while.
“And then the first race was when the accident happened. I didn’t get the greatest start, I think I was about fifth and then I managed to pass Max Stauffer and Lachlan Epis. I caught up to the back of Brookesy and was behind him as we started lap two.
“Jake Farnsworth was out in front and he’d run wide at turn four before getting back on the gas to come back to the apex. He was just offline, not on the right part of the track, so when he got on the gas it just let go and flicked him over the bars.
“The first thing I remember is, that because you got a lot of lean angle as you go through turn four, Brookesy just started stopping the moment that he saw that Jake was on the ground. Brookesy was already stopping because he had a better view of Farnsworth crashing than I did.
“Then I think what’s happened is my front brake lever has gone into Brookesy’s rear cowl. My bike then basically disappeared out from underneath me. Even Max Stauffer said that from where he was that it looked like the bike disappeared. My right arm went into the back wheel of Brookesy’s bike, and then got dragged down into where the shock is on the BMW, and I can remember having my arm in the back wheel thinking ‘this is bad’. I was doing everything I could to get my arm out and I’ve got a big burn on the back of my right arm from the tyre.
“And then once I got free of Brookesy’s bike I was sliding on the track on my knees, and then I just felt this massive impact on the back of my legs and it flipped me around as Lachlan Epis ran me over. He sort of like did a jump off the back of my legs and it spun me around and I got to see that it was him, and yeah that was after that I came to a rest and my left leg, I can’t believe my left leg’s not broken because it took the major part of the impact and that’s where I got the most pain in the back of my calf and my knee, but unfortunately I did fracture my right ankle at the end of my tibia.
“It looks like, well from what the doctors told me this, it’s on the site of an old fracture so it’s broken through an old fracture site. But it’s not a big deal. They said it’s just a hairline crack and they got me in a moon-boot so I just need to take it easy for four to six weeks.
“I should be okay so yeah, I think I’ll be okay for the ASBK race at Phillip Island.
“We were entered to do the Hartwell MCC round next weekend. It’s pretty important to get the bike out on track, and as you know I’m good friends with Brookesy, so we’ll put him on my bike just to get some set up and data at the Hartwell round on our bike.
“Hopefully I can get down there and just sort of be a part of it, even if I’m just sitting in the pits watching what’s going on and then we can get a setting for the bike. Just talking to Josh our settings are very similar on the bike. Like almost identical fork settings, identical pre-load and sort of spring in the rear, and the gearing and the ride heights, all end up nearly the same. So we can have him ride the bike and use that as a test which I was supposed to do, but unfortunately can’t due to my leg.
“The whole idea is to have the bike set up so that we can hit the first round the first round running and hopefully my leg will allow me to do the job there end of next month.”
2024 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar
- Round 1: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC Feb 23-25
- Round 2: Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW Mar 22-23
- Round 3: Queensland Raceway, QLD Apr 26-28
- Round 4: Morgan Park Raceway, QLD Jul 12-14
- Round 5: Phillip Island GP Circuit, VIC Sept 7-8
- Round 6: One Raceway, NSW Oct 4-6
- Round 7: The Bend Motorsports Park, SA Nov 8-10
