Shaun Harris on road to recovery after serious accident

New Zealand's Shaun Harris has defied the odds once again to recover from a serious crash after suffering multiple bleeds on his brain following an accident at Timaru International Motor Raceway on January 23.

Harris' family had been told to expect the worse in the wake of the crash last month for the second time in nine years after the racer was placed in an induced coma after a spill at the Isle of Man TT in 2007, when he sustained a head injury.

The New Zealand Herald reported that his wife, Fiona Kelsen, was advised that he may never wake up and that his life support system may have to be switched off if his condition did not dramatically improve.

However, Harris has pulled through and is back up on his feet to the amazement and obvious relief of his grateful partner.

"He is, to be honest, going ahead in leaps and bounds. It's amazing," she told the paper. "But he suffered a severe traumatic head injury, and still has a long way to go to recover.

"He is unable to swallow and has to be fed through a tube. And he can't talk yet so communicates by writing on a pad.

"He's still thinking about motorbikes. One thing he wrote was for me to sort out TT airline tickets. So I said 'okay Shaun I'll sort that out for you, in your dreams'," she added. "He's as nutty as a fruit cake."

Harris is now due to travel to Wellington to receive specialist treatment for the next part of his rehabilitation.

"The next stage of his rehabilitation will be to travel to Wellington where he will receive specialist treatment," said Kelsen.

"It's one step closer to home, just one step closer. And home is the best place for him to rehab.

"He will live but how he comes back to us we don't know. Having said that, he's Shaun Harris and watching him, seeing what he does, he has amazing stamina."

Kelsen knows only too well the ups and downs of motorcycle racing after spending around three months in the UK and Isle of Man after Harris' 2007 TT crash, which ended his career.