HOPKINS: MORE SURGERY ON INJURED HAND With a week to go to the penultimate round of the 2011 British Superbikes Championship, Samsung Crescent Racing’s John Hopkins continues his fight to be 100% fit for the final races as he recovers from hand injuries sustained at the MotoGP round in the Czech Republic in August. Despite sensationally winning both races at Donington Park BSB a week ago and taking over the BSB championship lead Hopkins knew his hand still wasn’t sufficiently healed and so rushed back to California to consult further with his surgeons. X-rays revealed areas still fractured with his middle finger not locating in the knuckle the finger has now been micro-plated and screwed. John Hopkins: “There was a lot of pain in my fingers at Donington Park, and I knew it wasn’t right and in fact I was very worried I’d aggravated the injury. So I rushed back to see my surgeon on the Monday. “The x-rays showe d that my middle finger wasn’t locating properly in the second knuckle. Fortunately the bone area that had previously been crushed was now nicely healed and so my surgeon was able to put in screws and plates so as to stabilize the finger. “I could feel straight away that the finger was much stronger and it’s improved every day since. I’m now very confident that I’ll be able to ride at near-enough 100% at Silverstone next weekend.” Jack Valentine, team manager: “I was amazed John was able to ride through such pain at Donington Park. He wouldn’t take pain killers and we could tell by the end of the second race it had been a tough ordeal for him. “The news now is all-good, John’s surgeon identified the issues and has done an incredible job in returning the stability John’s knuckle and finger needed. John’s very excited by the progress he’s made and we can now look forward to him being physically much better prepared for the Silverstone round. He took the lap record there at the World Superbike round we attended earlier this year. We think he’ll now be able to continue with that kind of pace. We can expect to be very competitive.”