British Superbikes' Jonathan Rea suffers suspected broken nose in freak incident at Cadwell Park test

Jonathan Rea’s test on the British Superbike’s HM Plant Honda at Cadwell Park was interrupted by a smack on the nose yesterday (Wednesday).  

Rea was just tipping into the Gooseneck when a bird flew up and caught him in the face. The impact on the front of the HM Plant Honda rider’s crash helmet was so hard it pushed the visor and air duct back into his face and left him with a suspected broken nose.

Jonathan Rea said: “I couldn’t believe it. There was no chance to avoid it. I’d just started to turn in and bang!

“I rode the bike back but had to go to the medical centre and get checked out. I can’t breathe through my nose at all right now.”

Leon Camier’s Bike Animal Honda had an engine swap mid-day after problems with his HRC kit engine.

With his other factory-kitted engine back in the workshop being refreshed for Knockhill, the team replaced it with John McGuinness’ spare TT engine (the one he used to win at the North West 200 and was then used as his TT back-up engine) to continue the test today at Cadwell Park.

While the team worked on that, former British Supersport Champion Leon Camier tried out Ian Hutchinson’s CBR600RR  British Superpsort bike to help set the bike up to suit the Cadwell Park circuit.