Hancock: Back in the Game

“I think it went good for my first meeting back, I definitely feel like I blew some cobwebs off and I answered some questions to myself. Am I going to drop the clutch on time? Am I going to ride the bike right?”  he said.

“I was nervous for the first couple of heats but as we got going I felt better and better and we learned some more about the bikes and now we can focus on something that will work for the Grand Prix.

“It’s one of the longest breaks I’ve had in my career, I had a broken arm early in my career that was around 3-4 months but this one was bad and I knew it was going to be a long lay-off.

“I haven’t been at the tapes in over eight months, of course my reactions are still there and I feel good but you don’t know until you’re up there but after the first heat I thought ‘I’m back’ and it’s going to be good.”

He continued: “It was nice to have some close races, it was appetising because I knew I had the speed, the bikes were quick and I was putting them in the right places but maybe I was in too much of a rush. I need to calm down, take a deep breath and relax a bit more and focus a little bit more on my riding rather than just trying to get there right away.

“The main thing is we’ve got a good platform to build on now with the bikes and we have time to get everything exactly how we want it. It was all smooth today and we have six weeks before the first GP but I can’t afford to sit around, I need track time and to keep racing and I’m sure we’ll go to the first round with a good set-up.”