Jason Bright has suffered a rib injury during today’s V8 Supercars race at Symmons Plains.
The Team BOC driver was taken to the medical centre after the 50-lap race suffering from severe pain in his side.
Dr Carl Le, V8 Supercars’ resident doctor, has diagnosed costochondral separation, where the rib is torn loose from the costal cartilage and detached from the sternum.
Bright will be given a local anaesthetic to see him through tomorrow’s race.
Bright believes he sustained the injury at Phillip Island but says the deterioration in today’s race was so bad he considered pulling in.
“I’ve been feeling some pain in my rib since Phillip Island but have been able to keep it under control by just nursing it,” Bright said.
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“Around here, with all the left-handers, it’s got pressure on it all the time and I’ve obviously damaged my rib quite badly.
“It happened just as I caught Russell Ingall before the Safety Car and I lost a lot of ground over that lap because I was in a lot of pain. I was very concerned about what it could be, but just gritted my teeth for the rest of the race.”
The injury saw Bright make a late error whilst trying to pass Tony D’Alberto for 15th, dropping him to the back of the grid.
Bright and the Brad Jones Racing team has endured a difficult weekend so far at Symmons Plains, but Bright believes the team is getting on top of its recent problems.
“The car felt very good. We’ve certainly got on top of our problems, but it’s very hard to pass here even though I could catch guys at half-a-second a lap,” he said.
“We made a few changes to the car between qualifying and the race to improve where we were really weak in the first sector. We were really strong in that part of the track in the race so I’m looking forward to qualifying tomorrow.”
Qualifying for tomorrow’s 50-lap race starts at 12.30pm.
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