Brad Jones made an emotional return to Brands Hatch over the British Superbike Championship (BSB) race weekend, a year to the day from the serious accident that consigned him to hospital for almost two months.
The 24-year old completed a demonstration lap of the Kent circuit aboard a roadgoing BMW M 1000 RR during Round 5 of the 2022 BSB Championship this weekend, Jones receiving a rapturous reception from spectators.
Jones - runner-up to Rory Skinner in the 2020 British Supersport Championship - was in the midst of his rookie BSB season with iForce PR Racing last year when a crash at Clark Curve during the Brands Hatch event left him with life-threatening injuries.
Airlifted to hospital, Jones was placed in an induced coma after suffering serious head and chest injuries, plus a fractured pelvis.
Leaving hospital after seven weeks to continue his convalescence at home, Jones has embarked on a long and arduous road to recovery, making his outing at the very venue he crashed all the more poignant.
“To be back at Brands Hatch a year on to the day was amazing, but to do a lap was the icing on the cake,” he told the official BSB website.
“If you had told me that would happen whilst I was laid in the hospital, I would have thought that it was the medication I was on doing the talking!
“It was a surreal feeling to chat to Larry [Carter] on the grid and waiting in kit felt just like old times.
“The support has been overwhelming all the way through and that was backed up again yesterday.
“All I have left to say is thank you to each and every person who has supported me, those close to me for keeping me motivated to keep pushing all the way through my rehab and to BSB for making the lap happen."
