May still sore, fast one week following Barber crash

April 27, 2007

Chris Martin

Just a handful of days after he was seen on live television flying through the air before crashing back down to earth, Team M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Geoff May was right back in his usual spot -- ranking among the top riders in both the Pro Honda Oils Supersport and AMA Superstock practice sessions this morning at California Speedway.

The Georgian opened his weekend with the fourth best time in the Superstock session and then bettered it with a third-ranked showing in Supersport, despite riding sore after escaping a crash that seemed likely to put him on the shelf for some time.

This morning May described the Barber Motorsports Park Supersport race crash in which he was ramped over Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking’s fallen machine. “Rapp was blocking my view of it, so when he moved to the inside, I had the thing pinned. When I saw his bike it was too late. I actually hit his rear wheel and I was wide open. It just launched me. It was like jumping out of an airplane. I have no idea of how fast we were going but it felt like I was floating there for a little while.

“I knew it was going to be bad when I was upside down and still gaining altitude. I couldn’t see where I was going. I was thinking, ‘I’ve been up here way too long.’ I had enough time to think about what was going on before I impacted.

“I can’t explain it. To have that big of a crash and walk away from it…both of us, Jamie and I, is unbelievable.”

“It hurt real bad,” May continued. “I’ve got to thank my trainer Simon (Sostaric) for whipping my butt into shape in the offseason and toughing me up. I truly think that’s the reason I didn’t break anything in that incident. I’m in good shape and my bones must be strong or something.”

While the timesheets would suggest that May is no worse for wear, the ’06 Supersport class runner-up claims that he’s still very much feeling that aftereffects of last weekend’s spectacular fall.

“I’m having a hard time with it,” he admitted. “I’m finding I’m hurt more than I thought I was. When I got on the bike I didn’t think it was going to be so bad and I then all these little things cropped up on me. I was like, ‘woah, where did that come from. I didn’t know I was hurt there.’

“I’ve got this massive hematoma on my hip right now; a big blood clot. The problem is the blood has been working its way into my muscles and I have a lot of muscle spasms and a lot of pain. That’s the major problem right now.”

May’s hoping to bounce back fast as he’s still looking to score that breakthrough first career AMA victory. He’s been knocking on the door for the past two season and feels confident that it will come this season, even if the odds may be a bit stacked against him and his Team M4 EMGO Suzuki crew this weekend.

“Typically these tracks aren’t the greatest for us -- the west coast ones -- because we don’t get to test here. For the factory teams, this is their home track and they get a lot of time here. To be as fast as we were this morning, I’m really happy. I think when we get to my favorite tracks -- the big fast ones like Road America and Miller, and even Road Atlanta and Laguna Seca -- I think there are going to be a few wins this year actually, once I get that first one out of the way.”