Nick given thumbs up to drive 'National'

Saunders virtually lopped off the top of his left thumb, the one on his gear-stick hand, early on at Jersey’s round of the Nationals on Wednesday.

The Guernsey star, who twice made the podium in the 2017 Nationals at Val des Terres, spent two-and-a-half hours at Jersey General Hospital before returning to Bouley Bay and being allowed to challenge for and subsequently qualify for the second run-off.

With a heavy dose of understatement, Saunders said the Jersey drive ‘didn’t go to plan’.

‘Just before the second practice run I caught my thumb in the front sprocket as I struggled to adjust a chain.

'I virtually broke off the end and I didn’t expect to get back to the hill, let alone be able to get back in the car.

‘It was put in a plastic splint but Jason [Mourant] has lent me an air bottle paddlestick and without the paddles I wouldn’t be able to change gear.’

Naturally, the injury is the last thing he wanted before the two biggest meetings of the CI racing season.

The damaged thumb will prevent him from any major mechanical work and he is very grateful to Mourant for making the gesture of the loan paddles,

‘I’ve got a good pit crew to help me, but I will be limited myself.

‘It was a bit of a shock and they [the doctors] want to see how it goes.

‘I’m very right-handed, so that was a bonus.

‘I normally have a gear selector but that would be too painful to use.’

Despite the injury, Saunders was still able to make the second top-12 run-off at Bouley Bay and feeling the pain as he adjusted to the paddle system came home ninth.

He had dreamt of much greater things today, especially as in 2017 he gained a long-awaited first National podium after many near-misses on his home hill.

Englishman Richard Spedding won both rounds a year ago and Saunders favours him again.

‘If I had to put my money on anyone it would be Spedding, even though he will be using a borrowed car.'