Team ILR's Connall Courtney returned to action at the latest round of the Hel Motostar British Championship at Brands Hatch last weekend.

The young rider from Warrenpoint has missed out on the last two rounds since his crash during the first qualifying session at Knockhill in June which left him requiring surgery on his right hand.

However, it was obvious during practice and qualifying that Courtney was struggling but, after much thought, he decided to take to the grid for Race 1.

Despite being in pain and discomfort, Connall did well to register an 11th place finish, but this proved to be a step too far with his injury and he reluctantly made the decision to take no further part in the weekend's proceedings.

Team ILR owner/manager Ian Lougher: 

"Connall returned to Brands after having to miss the previous two rounds through a nasty injury to his finger, where he had to have the finger pinned and a skin graft and the two fingers sewn together.

Unfortunately it was probably a week or two too soon to return to action as he was only really able to do 6 or 7 laps before his two fingers were starting to cramp up, which made it very difficult to brake properly,

But Connall gave it his best in the one race out of the three that were scheduled for the weekend."

Connall Courtney: 

"It finished up a really tough weekend.

I knew from the morning warm-up that the race was going to be tough to finish with the injured hand but I managed to just about make it to the line in 11th.

I really struggled to get the bike stopped because it's my right hand but happy to have made it, learned more and made some improvements."