Burgoyne back on track after injury nightmare

The World, European, British and Scottish title winner wanted to make sure he wasn’t fazed by the crash which ruled him out of action for a year with a broken back.

And the wisdom of that strategy has been proved since his return in March.

In his first event back he regained the British Championship title he had been defending when he suffered the injury the previous year.

Since then he has enjoyed a consistent run of results, the latest of which came at last weekend’s UK Championship in Skegness, where he finished sixth and third in two finals and fifth in the Championship race itself.

He said: “It’s one of the hardest weekends of the year because all of the top boys are there from up and down the country and a couple of boys from Holland as well.

“But we had good results all weekend, not the result we wanted in the Championship race to be honest but it’s still fifth and a good result.

“I’m really pleased with my form since the injury.

“It’s been pretty consistent, we’ve got a good average in our national points per meeting so we’re just trying to keep going the way we’ve been going.”

Chris admitted the serious nature of his injury - he broke a vertebrae at the bottom of his spine - had been tough to handle.

He said: “It was an emotional time for the family and the fans, all my sponsors.

“But my own determination was to get back in the seat and win again, that’s all I wanted to do.

“When it first happened I was stuck in hospital in Bristol and everything was running through my head - ‘I’m not going to get back in a stock car again, that’s me finished’.

“When I got back out I had to keep myself going physically and keep my mind positive.

“I wanted to get back in my car and I watched my accident back on YouTube quite a few times so I didn’t get scared about what happened. I just wanted to keep a positive mind.

“Last year I was defending the championship when the accident happened so to come though and actually win it back was a fairytale story.”