Aitchison, Aprilia progress halted by crash
Mark Aitchison's hopes of breaking Splitlath Redmond Aprilia's 2012 points' duck in style came to an abrupt end at Cadwell Park after a crash on the third lap of the first race left him with injured fingers.
The Australian, who was embarking on his second event with the team, was proving one of the revelations of the Cadwell Park weekend as he proved fast in free practice, before going on to secure the team's first-ever top ten start in qualifying.
However, while a strong start had him up to sixth initially, Aitchison crashed heavily at Charlie's on lap tree, damaging two fingers and putting him out of the remainder of the weekend.
Targeting a return for Donington Park, where he was quick in testing earlier this month, Aitchison was frustrated to miss out on the chance to not only score the team's first points of the season, but also get well inside the top ten.
"I'm still unsure of how bad it is, but I'm hoping we can get this sorted out quickly so I can be back in time for Donington Park in a fortnight," the former WSBK rider said. "My hand was a bit of a mess yesterday but I'm hopeful that we can get it fixed up as soon as possible.
"It's a shame because it was going so well. I'd got a good start off the line and was up to sixth almost straight away but then I just lost it at Charlie's. I was gutted because we were on course for our best result of the year."
