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South African GP tests Townley.
The South African GP held at the magnificent Sun City circuit has been a tough test for KTM’s Ben Townley. The factory star struggled with niggling injuries that he had sustained a week prior to the GP however the resilient Kiwi still tried to ride through the pain barrier to give his best shot.
The first MX1 heat of the day was a fierce fight right from the word go. Townley had a great start and by the second turn was leading the GP in front of a cheering South African crowd. Fellow Kiwi, Josh Coppins snuck pass a few moments later to lead on lap one but Townley answered right back to regain the lead. The factory KTM was holding off every challenge from series leader Stefan Everts until Townley made a detrimental mistake just before the finish line table top. BT went down hard and seemed to be a little bit groggy has he picked up his machine and rejoined the race. Instead of giving up, Townley shook off the after effects of the crash and put in a fighting effort to try and catch team-mate Steve Ramon. By the last lap he had closed the gap on Ramon but just couldn’t find that extra to get onto the podium and had to settle for fourth.
Townley missed out on challenging for the lead in race two as he had to fight his way through the pack in the opening stages. With ten minutes gone on the clock BT was into third position but quite a way off Everts and Coppins. Townley rode his own race until he had an unfortunate crash with five laps to go. He circulated to finish in seventeenth but with his change on riding style he looked as if he was in excruciating pain. The worse was confirmed when medics examined Townley’s right hand. An injury which BT sustained in a race incident prior to the GP had now been made worse with all three of the stitches being ripped from his right pinkie. Doctors re-stitched the finger before Townley made his way to the airport to return to Belgium.
“It’s been a really tough day for me. I wasn’t 100% coming into the race but I tried to put that aside and get on with the job. I hit my head pretty hard in the first heat and still managed to catch Ramon. I wheelied in the start of the second heat and had to come through the pack. I had difficulty to see the lines on some sections of the circuit and crashed, re-injuring my hand. I’ve got two weeks to heal and get ready for the next GP in Belgium,” explained Townley.
Results MX1
