Christian Iddon

Christian Christian IddonIddon

Not your everyday bubble bath...

Iguess I gotta think myself lucky that I haven’t gone through this process in a while, but oh does it suck to be injured. The last time I needed to recover from an injury was back in 2019 when I broke my fibula. And strangely enough it happened during a crash at the same track. Knockhill has once again cast its spell over me, as I’m currently trying to get fixed up from a broken arm. The Knockhill weekend started out great and I topped FP1 in the wet. I’d never ridden the Buildbase Suzuki in the wet before and I contemplated not even venturing out as the rest of the weekend was to be dry, but after 20 or so of my competitors started lighting up the timing screens, I decided I had better show my face – and I’m really glad I did because I genuinely really enjoyed it. The bike was a pleasure to ride in those conditions and that good feeling on the bike pretty much continued for the rest of the weekend, right up until just before race one.

The injury didn’t actually happen in a race. It didn’t even happen in a live session. Rather embarrassingly, I crashed on the sighting lap of race one before even getting to the grid, colliding with Josh Owens. As I came towards the hairpin, I saw Josh there and that was no issue. I always do quite a fast sighting lap but nothing crazy and I was doing just that, but as I was on the brakes and closing in fast, the situation rapidly went out of control and the difference in speeds completely caught me out. Before I knew it, I found myself in the gravel feeling like I was in some kind of bad dream. Nobody can crash on a sighting lap... surely this isn’t happening to me. As the reality began to set in, my thoughts quickly turned to rectifying the situation as best I could. I got both arms under the bike and managed to lift it back up onto its wheels. It took some effort, though, as I was in a little bit of discomfort but those worries would have to wait. I tried to assess the damage and everything seemed pretty good apart from the front wheel not pointing quite in the direction it should and the throttle side clip-on now hanging on by the cables as it had snapped clean off.

With the bike upright, I was desperate for some assistance from the marshals to help me get back to the garage. As I looked around for my knights in orange overalls, I caught sight of Josh, who was now on his feet and looking like some kind of hulk as his airbags were fully inflated. He gave me a big shrug of the shoulders, a raise of the arms as if to say ‘what the hell was that’, and I returned the gesture immediately. I knew this one was more on me than him, so I don’t know why I gave it back but there was no time to worry about that – I had to make this race.

I couldn’t get the dash to fire up. I was pressing the usual red button but nothing was happening. I looked aimlessly for a dash masterswitch but that doesn’t even exist so that was always going to be futile. I roared out to the marshals: “Where the f@@@ is this recovery van?” I’m not normally one for foul language and certainly not towards those helping me, but it was in the heat of the moment and I hope they know it wasn’t directed at them. I just needed to get back to the garage and do it quickly!

I pressed the usual red button once more and saw a moment of life on the dash. I tried it again and the same thing happened. I realised the switch was broken and I would have to hold that button down constantly to get the bike started and to keep it running.

The added difficulty was that the switch was on the handlebar that was flapping in the wind as it’d broken clean off the bike. I fumbled around trying to keep that button down while pressing the green start button, but it was an impossible task for one person. Finally, after more shouting, a marshal pressed the green button for me and she fired into life.

Keeping the button pressed, I chugged to pitlane. I couldn’t go on anything other than tickover because the throttle was detached and it was taking too long. I remembered what my endurance teammate had done when he broke the same bar just a few weeks prior and at that thought, I jammed the bar into the fairing and managed to twist the throttle, helping me get back to my box just that little bit quicker.

Back in the garage the team set to work on repairing the bike. The rest of the field (now sitting on the grid) were blissfully unaware of what was going on as both sides of the Hawk Racing team set about on my bike to repair all the damage as I headed to the back of the garage and hid in the tyres racks out of the way. Hunched down as if to hide away from the situation, I took it all in. What had I done! And what can we salvage from this? I knew I had to go out and try to race, but I also knew something wasn’t right and that I had damaged not only the bike but also myself. With that, I got the shout from the front of the box. The guys had fixed her as best they

Training for the next Top Gun movie...

Iddon will be back at it at Brands.

could (and made a great job of it) and I joined the back of the grid to start the race, but it was all in vain. As a rider, I will always give my maximum and I am happy to push beyond pain to race, but this was different. I just had no strength – my arm was giving way and it was dangerous. After four laps I had to admit defeat and I retired to the pits and walked to the medical centre. After a couple of x-rays it was confirmed I’d broken a piece off the top of my humerus. It has some posh medical term but the fact it went up the head of the bone and not across explains why I still had strength and stability to get on the grid and do a few laps, but by virtue of my arm now not being fully attached to my shoulder, it also explains why I had no strength to ride at the pace required. My weekend was done.

So, here I find myself going from specialist to specialist, trying to do all the things that will aid recovery. With surgery ruled out I’ve been at every kind of treatment I

Above: It was all going so well at Knockhill.

Left: Iddon’s been hitting the deep freezer, too.

can find to help me heal quicker. I’ve had hyperbarics, floatation therapy, cryotherapy, and laser therapy. It’s a process that, as racers, we go through enough times and it’s certainly no fun.

Thankfully, because of the calendar, I had a few weeks extra to recover, so that has worked in my favour. I know that heading into the next round it’s not going to be fully healed, but with a big dent in my points after missing all the races at Knockhill I have absolutely no choice but give it the best shot I have.

I honestly think we were ready for a good weekend and that hurts more than the injury itself. Being ruled out of racing after such a freak incident is hard to swallow, but it’s done now so it’s time to focus forward and see what we can achieve over the next rounds.