Dan Cooper: 'I was lucky to get away with that'

Dan Cooper was left relatively unscathed following a serious collision in yesterday’s North West 200 Supertwins race.

He was caught up in an incident when race leader Ryan Farquhar lost the front end leaving Cooper with nowhere to go. Thrown from his bike as it collided with Farquhar’s stricken Kawasaki, he suffered two dislocated shoulders but was left thanking his lucky stars.

The rear end of his bike completely destroyed, Cooper admits he was lucky to be able to walk away: “We got away with it pretty lightly, if you take a look at the bike it’s a right mess,” he told MCN. “The tyre is still in the bike but the wheel has shattered and the swingarm is called right up. I’m lucky to get away with what I did.”

Recalling the incident, he said: “I was trying to get a run on Ryan and was going to pass him into the left hander at Black Hill. I was right on his arse and he just lost the front. It happened that quick I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t avoid him. As soon as he lost the front I hit him, we were racing that close.

Cooper was taken to the Causeway hospital in Coleraine before being discharged and back in the paddock less than 24 hours later. He’ll now focus on returning to action at the Isle of Man TT in two weeks’ time.

“We’ll be back out at the TT. We’ll try the big bike but at the moment I’m not sure I want to be anywhere near it. We’ll see. I’ve done shoulders before and normally after a couple of days it’s alright but I don’t know with both of them.”

Farquhar was flown to the Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast where he underwent emergency surgery last night. He’s now believed to be in a stable condition and doctors are optimistic he’ll make a full recovery.