Image: Jeff Crow.

Dominant MX Nationals MX1 championship leader Kirk Gibbs overcame a freshly fractured shoulder-blade at Shepparton on Sunday to increase his advantage to a commanding 63-point margin.

The KTM Motocross Racing Team rider has revealed he crashed while training in the lead-up to round seven, but soldiered on to finish a miraculous third overall with assistance from the Racesafe Medical Team.

“That’s probably the toughest day pain-wise that I’ve had ever probably,” Gibbs recalled. “That first moto nearly had me in tears at the end of it, that’s how bad the pain was. I just thank god for the adrenaline once it kicks in.

“I could have done a lot better today, it was the sort of track that suits me with big deep ruts and all that, but in the condition that I was in I’m easily happy to come away with third overall today. Now I just want to go away and get this thing back to 100 percent and just come out at Nowra injury-free and have a good go.”

Team manager Rob Twyerould said it was the supervision of Racesafe that enabled Gibbs to race near his potential despite his painful injury.

“Considering everything, Kirk rode amazingly well,” Twyerould commented. “In the first moto he had one really big moment and we could see it in his body language that it hurt. Racesafe were amazing today with him, they just really kept him going and looked after him – they were incredible and they got him back out there again.

“In the second he fell and dropped back to second-last, but just gritted his teeth and made it all the way back to fourth. Two weeks will make a huge difference to Kirk, he’ll feel a lot better at the next round.”