Ford Dale is sidelined with a serious knee injury until the Super X season.
Serco Yamaha's Ford Dale has suffered a cruel blow to his 2011 Rockstar Energy MX Nationals title chase hopes after snapping his ACL and MCL ligaments at the last round of the championship at Murray Bridge, SA.
Dale wrenched his knee when he put his foot down in a sand section during qualifying, but gritted his teeth and charged through the remainder of the day's racing with two of the three ligaments gone, finishing a remarkable eighth overall.
"I guess I didn't want to pull out in case the injury wasn't as bad as I thought," he told us last night. "If it'd just been a sprain and I'd DNFed I would've lost a lot of points in the championship.
"I was pretty surprised though, because even though my knee was wrecked I still managed to finish eighth overall for the day in the Pro Lites class, and finished third in the last moto!"
The Sunny Coast lad underwent an MRI scan yesterday, which revealed the bad news. However, he says the surgeons will replace his ACL with an artificial version, and he's due to be back riding by the end of July, focusing his efforts on the upcoming Super X series.
"I'm really gutted to have this happen at this stage in the season, as the next few rounds at Toowoomba and Coonabarabran are tracks that really suit me and I was hoping to start making back some ground in the points chase," he says.
"But I'm also happy that I'll be back riding so soon. Most ACL injuries take about six months to come back from, so to have the specialists say I'll be walking within two weeks and riding within eight is really good news given the circumstances."
We wish you all the best for your recovery, Ford.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Ford Dale out of MX Nationals hunt
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