As the riders, apart from Leon Haslam who decided to sit the race out, lined up on the grid, Tom Sykes was missing. He had crashed on the sighting lap, but he got his Kawasaki towed back to the pits with ten minutes for his team to rebuild the front cowl. If his bike were put back in the garage, that would be his race over, so his team brought their tools and mechanics out to the pit lane to frantically try to get his bike ready. As it was, he had to start from the pit lane, hoping that the small grid would allow him to score a couple of points.
