Injured At Road America, Cook Is Hopeful Of Ridge Return
Jeremy Cook will attempt to race at Ridge Motorsports Park next weekend after having collarbone surgery.
The following is from Jeremy Cook Racing…
Jeremy Cook had a weekend to forget at Road America, but – despite a broken collarbone and heavily damaged motorcycle – he is raring to be back on his BMW S 1000 RR at MotoAmerica’s next event.
The Marylander struggled during his second time racing at Road America in five years to get the most out of his team’s BMW on Friday and Saturday. The June 11-13 event came to a dramatic end for Cook on Lap 1, Turn 1 of Sunday’s Stock 1000 race. Nevertheless, Cook has experience racing within days of having collarbone surgery and plans to put that experience to use June 25-27 when MotoAmerica visits The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Wash.
Cook started the weekend struggling for pace in the Stock 1000 Class’ Friday practice as the team was figuring out how to get the most out of its BMW package. Cook finished that session 31st in the 40-rider field with a fastest lap time of 2:29.216. Cook later showed a big improvement in the afternoon qualifying. He posted the 28th-fastest lap of the session and dropped his best lap time around the 4.048-mile road course by more than two seconds to a 2:27.146. When Saturday’s Qualifying 2 session concluded, Cook had secured 28th for Sunday’s Stock 1000 starting grid and had improved his best lap time by about another two seconds with a 2:24.822.
The team’s hard work toward finding an ideal setup came to fruition in Sunday morning warm-up. Cook posted a weekend-best lap time of 2:23.339 and was the 22nd-fastest rider during the session.
When the Stock 1000 race got underway on Sunday, Cook got a good start, had moved up about 10 positions and was riding the outside line through Turn 1 when another rider crashed and skidded into his path. Cook did not have time to avoid the down rider and ended up coming off his BMW in spectacular fashion. Cook was thrown off his motorcycle forward and to the left, and his BMW took an odd trajectory — tumbling end over end several times before coming to rest in the Turn 1 gravel trap.
Cook met with the surgeon who performed his previous collarbone operation on Wednesday and learned that his collarbone is broken in several places. Cook also has pain, swelling or other signs of injury in his right knee, both ankles, right foot, hips, hamstrings and neck. As for Cook’s BMW S 1000 RR, the front forks, triple clamps, axle are bent, both rims are shattered and the subframe, battery box, exhaust and crash protection parts are all badly damaged.
Despite Cook and his motorcycle being battered in the crash, the Jeremy Cook Racing team still plans to make the cross-country trek to Washington with a not-fully-repaired BMW S 1000 RR. The estimated bike repair cost is about $5,000 – $15,000.
Jeremy Cook / No. 81
“It certainly wasn’t the weekend we’d hoped for at Road America. But, considering how bad Sunday’s crash was, I’m grateful that there’s even a possibility that I could be racing at The Ridge later this month. It wasn’t any fun struggling to find the pace I know that I and my BMW S 1000 RR can run around this fast, flowing track, and it’s too bad we didn’t even get a lap in once we found a race setup we really liked. I’ve broken my collarbone before, and I went club racing five days after the last time I had collarbone surgery. I really want to get right back into the saddle of my BMW S 1000 RR. We have a lot of work to do to get the bike repaired and ready for Washington, and I encourage anyone who would like to chip in and help my team get back to racing to contact me via my Facebook page, named ‘Jeremy Cook #81.’ or send their donation to http://www.paypal.me/jeremycook81.”
