Hodge's voice from Valkenswaard
By TMX Archives on 6th Apr 07
THE new Valkenswaard track was truly that, the start having been moved to the back of the track where most of the crowd watched anyway, and the direction of racing being altered to clockwise. The ground also appeared to have been rotivated as the sand was much deeper than usual.
KTM Off-Road Sports manager Pit Beirer, RaceDirector Stefan Everts and Tyla Rattray's stepfather Wayne Lumgair wereall handed out stern warnings as to their future conduct on Saturday afternoon at Valkenswaard whenall three had to appear before the International Jury charged with''outside assistance''.
All three were quickly on the scene when Rattraysuffered a heavy crash after he and his bike had been thrown into asomersault by soft dirt on the take-off of a jump which had been scraped by a digger.
The three accused were not the only ones concernedfor Tyla's welfare as he thudded to the ground from a great height, andBeirer, himself in a wheelchair since suffering spinal injuries four years ago, feared theworst as he rushed, with assistance, to the scene: ''It was me whoordered the bike to be started to make sure it hadn't seized, and I'm just gladTyla was wearing a Leatt neck brace. I don't know if it helped, but itdidn't do any harm, and we encourage all of our riders to wear one. It is notperfect yet, and there need to be some developments in chest guards totake account of the neck brace.''
After a few anxious minutes Rattray was able toget to his feet and he returned to the track two hours later to qualifythrough the Last Chance before finishing second in both motos on Sunday.
NEW Aprilia race chief is Rioccardo Boschi, who preveiously ran his own JK team which supported Luigi Seguy for so many years.
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, April 6, 2007.