Harry shows pace but luck once again escapes him in Estoril

Harry Khouri’s return to the ESBK Supersport Championship was short lived, the talented Aussie sustaining a high-speed fall in race one at the Circuito do Estoril last weekend which put paid to him adding more points to his season tally.

Improving consistently through Free Practice, Harry, who has experience at the Portuguese venue albeit on a smaller capacity machine, was in fine form and keen to make an impression after missing the previous round following a testing crash at Alcarras that left him with a dislocated shoulder.

Qualifying eighteenth both Harry and his Andotrans Team Torrento squad were optimistic of a solid result on Saturday, given their pace at the start of the weekend. However, optimism soon turned to shock and worry following a high-speed crash that saw Harry having to bail from his machine on the approach to turn one at over 250kmph.

Despite the scary looking incident, Khouri escaped Serious injury but missed Sunday’s second race – opting to have an x-ray on his wrist to triple check there were no broken bones. Thankfully this was the case.

Harry Khouri:

“We made a good improvement with how I felt on the bike and were fast from the off in Estoril. Unfortunately, in qualifying my fastest lap got deleted which put me further back on the grid than we should have been in P18. We were looking good for the top ten and I was confident. I made a good start in the race and made a few positions in the first four laps but coming into turn one at about 270kmph and had to bail off which was pretty scary for me. The brake failure wasn’t to do with the brakes themselves or a tech issue. We picked up some debris which glazed the discs. A bit strange but it could have been so much worse. It was a real shame that I couldn’t race on Sunday, especially after feeling so good on the bike throughout the weekend but when I woke up the wrist didn’t feel great, and I couldn’t twist the throttle, so we decided it wasn’t safe to continue. Later in the day we had an x-ray, and it showed a small fracture to the top of my wrist. On the lucky side we have a couple of months to fully recover before the next round. Thanks to everyone who is supporting me and thanks to those that sent well wishes.”