SA Moto3 rider Ruche Moodley suffers fractured wrist after heavy collision in Spain

Just as he was getting into the swing of things in his maiden Moto3 season, Ruche Moodley will have to regain some of the confidence he lost after a crash in Jerez, Spain last Sunday. 

The South African star suffered a fractured wrist after colliding with David Almansa and David Munoz in a high speed crash at Turn 6 at the Jerez Circuit.

The 18-year-old is undergone surgery to his wrist in Barcelona. 

Moodley posted a message to his social media, saying the surgery was a success and apologised to Almansa and Munoz for the crash.

“Surgery on my right radius was a success. I’m incredibly grateful to my amazing team BOE Motorsports and family during these past few days,” Moodley wrote. 

His father Arushen said Ruche couldn’t not slow down the bike using the gears and carried a lot of speed into Turn 6.

This was after Moodley faced gearbox issues after his eyebrow raising pace during practice. 

The team BOE Motorsport rider posted the fifth- and ninth-quickest times for the first and second practice sessions, sling-shotting him directly into second qualifying.

Moto3 has two qualifying sessions, the first to arrange the bottom of the grid while the second qualifying session arranges the top 14 riders. Moodley’s pace in practice automatically qualified him for Q2. 

But gearbox failure after practice put him at the bottom of the pack. 

“I knew we had the pace to move up the order during qualifying. It’s a pity that we suffered a gearbox failure,” Moodley said. 

Starting the race from P15, Moodley had to fight harder than he would have had his weapon been at 100 percent, but sometimes pushing harder than the limit can work against you.

In the opening lap of the race, the South African teen couldn’t slow down in time to meet the demands of Turn 6 or the ‘Curva Dani Pedrosa’, which is directly after the high speed straight. 

His dad Arushen, who travels around with the team as part of Ruche’s support system, said they will have to analyse the data to check for mechanical failure. 

“It seems as though Ruche couldn’t really slow the bike down using the gears. He was carrying a lot of speed into Turn 6, so he had to lift the bike up.

“But two other riders were already running wide and he collided heavily with them. We’ll have to check the data to see if it was a mechanical failure.

“Following medical evaluations, it was confirmed that he suffered a fractured wrist. He’s now heading off to Barcelona to undergo surgery,” Arushen Moodley said. 

Team owner Jose Angel Gutierrez Boe said the crash was unfortunate because Moodley had made a great start to the weekend.

“The weekend started very well. Ruche really impressed all of us with his pace from the very first lap. It was the first time he was within the top five, and he was consistent in every session. 

“Unfortunately, the race was a completely different story and not only he couldn’t show his real pace.

“After his crash he injured himself, and this is something that we never want to see on any rider. Sometimes, motorsport shows its most dangerous version,” Boe said.