Toms battles through pain

TJ Toms defied injury to pick up a brace of top-eight finishes at Donington Park in round eight of the Quattro Group British Supersport championship
The G&S Racing Kawaski rider was still recovering from a scaphoid injury picked up in a crash at Cadwell Park but gritted his teeth to add more points to his season’s tally.
Teammate Jorel Boerboom suffered a crash in the first race but recovered to finish 23rd in Sunday’ feature race.
After qualifying in 11th place, Toms began the sprint race from the fourth row and got away to a good start. He was ninth after the opening lap and was running on the tail of the leading group. A battle for seventh place with Oliver Barr saw the pair exchange position over the remainder of the race with Toms making his pass stick on the final lap at Redgate to finish seventh.
Toms was on the second row for the feature race but was impeded by a rider who crashed at the first corner and was pushed back to eighth. He reeled in the leading group and was setting lap times quicker than the leader but unable to make a pass and finished eighth. That gave him 10 points to go with Saturday’s 12 to put him ninth in the overall standings on 108.
Boerboom was hampered by a technical issue during free practice and qualifying, which left him on the 10th row for the sprint race. He picked up places throughout the 10 laps but on the final lap tangled with another rider at Schwantz Curve and crashed out.
Placed in the middle of the 10th row for the feature race, Boerboom was 29th on the opening lap but began to pick off riders and by lap 13 of 16 was 25th. On the final lap he gained more places to cross the line 23rd.
Team manager Tom Fisher said: “With his wrist feeling a tad tender, we didn’t expect TJ to do what he did. He was amazing. He would have been mixing it for the podium in the second race but for the first corner melee.”
The next round is at Assen over the weekend of September 19/21.