Checking up with Broc Pearson at the 6 month mark as he makes his return to racing
Earlier in the year Broc Pearson was seriously injured while training at the Gold Coast ahead of the opening round of ASBK 2017, where he was to compete in the Supersport 300 and R3 Cup classes. The mid-February crash resulted in two broken legs, multiple breaks to his back, a broken shoulder and other minor injuries.
After six months of recovery he’s now back on a motorcycle and recently took part in the ASBK Morgan Park Raceway test.
Broc has checked in to update us on his road to recovery and his expectations ahead of the ASBK Round Five which will be held at Morgan Park late this month.
The past six months of my life have been nothing if not completely eventful,  filled with blood, sweat and tears, yet plenty of joy, while I’ve  been on my way to recovery smashing out personal goals.
Before my accident, I had never spent a night in hospital, nor had I ever broke a bone which was a bit of a wake up call when I spent four weeks inside the Gold Coast hospital with a list of fractures and injuries.
I was very grateful to have ongoing support while I was in hospital, I had plenty of friends and family come in and visit while I was recovering, which kept me busy when I wasn’t doing my physiotherapy to try and speed up my recovery.
After four weeks in hospital, I received my clearance to return home and continue my recovery from home. I was also given a period of six to nine months off the bike, before I would able to return to racing. I made sure I did all my physio given from the hospital, plus extra on top, as I had a goal to return to riding within a five month period for my ASBK home round of Morgan Park.
I’ve had to re-learn the basics of life and it’s been anything but easy. Being able to stand on both legs without collapsing or passing out, learning to walk again and re-training my brain to process each step as I try to and make walking a natural everyday thing.
All independence I had was lost in the accident and I had to depend on everyone else to get me through the day, which one was of the toughest things, as I’m not someone who likes to depend on others.
For endless weeks I worked harder than I ever had and I was up walking within two months, cycling within three and running by four months. Shortly after returning to running, I had my clearance to return to riding and doing what I love.
I did a practice day at Queensland Raceway a few weeks ago as my first ride back, and what an unbelievable day I had. I had no pressure nor did I have any goals, I just wanted to go out and have some fun. I got more comfortable on the bike as the day went on, but of course I found a few places on the body that needed some work before I returned for my next ride.
I spent the next few weeks training very hard on specific areas that I had targeted, which were going to help progress my speed when getting back on the bike and it all worked out well.
I attended the ASBK Test prior to Round 5 at Morgan Park and I had no expectations on how my results would go, but I’m wrapped with the result.
On the first day, I just enjoyed been back on the bike and focused on improving the set up of the suspension. Morgan Park is quite rough in a couple areas, so I needed to work on suspension issues to get that sorted.
Towards the end of Day 1, I put in a couple fast laps by myself, still with some suspension issues so I didn’t have very high expectations. However, I was happy to finish up ninth overall and only a couple of seconds off lap record pace.
On Day 2 of testing, I focused on perfecting the setup before lunch time so I had a couple sessions in the afternoon to see what sort of pace I could run. I had the suspension set up working well for the afternoon, so I focused on throwing down some good times.
I managed to drop my times by over two seconds on the second day to dip into the 1:24.5s which was the third fastest outright time over the couple of days, and only four tenths off the lap record for the 300 Production class.
Now it’s time to get back to working on some weaknesses so I can return later this month to Morgan Park for Round 5 of the ASBK in top notch condition to hopefully return to where I left off.
I still have no expectations of where I’ll finish due to what I’ve been through this year and I’m grateful to just be out riding. But of course I am a racer and there’s nothing sweeter then winning. I guess we will have to wait to find out. Bring on Round 5!
-Broc Pearson
