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The Aussie Shane Watts: who is campaigning in the States has fought hard to Overcome Injuries: to get back to his previous competitive form.
Shane`s PR will be regularly updating Silver Bullet with his progress.
Watts Rebounds With National Victory:
Team KTM Offroad racer Shane Watts scored an emphatic victory on the weekend at round one of the new Part Unlimited sponsored National Offroad Motorcycle series, held in Decatur, Arkansas.
Perfect racing conditions and an awesome 8 mile course greeted the strong field of 20 Pro class, and many amatuer class riders.
Watts began the 2 hour race with a third place start but quickly moved into the lead position by the fourth corner. Despite being heavily pressured by Team Kawasaki\'s Cole Calkins for the finally hour of the race, Watts never relinquished the lead and crossed the finish line with a margin of 8 seconds over Calkins.
\"It\'s great to have things finally start to turn around for me. I\'m still not a 100% yet but this win definately gives me some good confidence and momentum going into the next round of the GNCC. I had a lot of trouble with the lapped riders today. Every time I\'d make a break I\'d get held up and dogged which would allow the other guys to catch back up again. This race though was all a part of my master plan to again be consistent. Consistently first!\"
Watts has been hampered by some small injuries in the past 2 months which has seriously affected his training schedule and performance, the most recent being a torn Medial Cruiciate ligament in his right knee, sustained in a KTM photo shoot 3 weeks ago.
\"This is why my results have been so average in the last two GNCC\'s. In the Florida race I pulled the holeshot then tweaked my knee real bad in the first corner, then crashed twice in the next 8 corners which put me at the rear of that 38 rider Pro class. However though, I rode strong and hit the lead midway through the second lap and held it for the first half of the race until I ran out of energy and fatigue set in, finally toughing out an 11th place finish. At the following Georgia GNCC I was riding comfortably at the rear of the lead pack until I seriously jammed and tweaked my injured knee at the start of the second lap. I wasn\'t able to continue any further the pain was that strong. Due to my knee injury it\'s only in the last week that I have been able to do some training, riding my mountain bike and doing yard work around my house. I haven\'t been able to ride my KTM during the week, so as not to prolong the recovery time from this injury. It will still be a few more weeks before I hit top form again.\"
For Watts now it\'s back to the Mountain bike trails and cutting down trees on his property to get in preparation for Round 4 of the GNCC Championship in Morganton, North Carolina this coming weekend.
National Offroad Motorcycle Championship
Decatur, Arkansas March 14
1. Shane Watts (KTM)
2. Cole Calkins (KAW)
3. Jimmy Jarrett (YAM)
4. Tony Joiner (YAM)
5. Nathan Kanney (YAM)
6. Kerry Green (HUS)
7. Justin Williamson (YAM)
8. Steve Levain (YAM)
9. Matthew Fish (KTM)
