Hamill Will Ride in Swedish GP
| August 29, 2002
The following is an update made available from Billy Hamill’s website, billyhamill.com, regarding the aftermath of his recent injury at round two of the AMA National Championship Speedway Series in Auburn, California, on August 16:
Billy Hamill will be fit to ride in Saturday’s Scandinavian Grand Prix at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, despite suffering from a compressed fracture of a lower vertebra.
Billy hasn’t ridden since crashing in the American National Championship round at Auburn on Friday August 16, but doctors are still unsure whether he sustained the back injury on that night, or earlier in the season. Billy believes a heat 15 spill at Wolverhampton back on June 17 may have been responsible for the injury.
“I can still feel it’s there,” said Billy, “but the injury has been a lot better in the last few days and I am confident I will be OK this weekend. I have been having regular physio in America, and I have been swimming down the beach as well. The weather in California has been beautiful and it appears to have done the back a lot of good.
“The doctors can’t seem to determine whether it is a new injury or an old one, and I don’t think I have suffered a compressed fracture before. Maybe I did it at Wolverhampton, I just don’t know.
“It was a pretty nasty crash at Auburn and I demolished a couple of boards in the fence. It was a good job in one way that they gave way like they did.”
Hamill made his World Final debut at the Ullevi Stadium in 1991, finishing 12th with six points. He said: “I remember it being a fantastic stadium and I am sure it is going to be another great night this weekend. I am up for it.”
Billy starts Saturday’s Grand Prix, the seventh of 10 this season, in ninth place overall, eight points ahead of Todd Wiltshire, who is 11th. The top 10 finishers this year qualify for the 2003 Grand Prix series.
