Motorex KTM Racing Team's Kirk Gibbs has avoided any serious injury after taking a hard fall at Taupo's final round of the 2013 New Zealand Motocross Championships.
Motorex KTM Racing Team’s Kirk Gibbs has avoided any serious injury after taking a hard fall at Taupo’s final round of the 2013 New Zealand Motocross Championships.
The South Australian went down during the second MX1 moto of the day and was unable to complete another lap after remounting his KTM 450 SX-F.
Gibbs was forced to pull off and seek medical attention at the track before being sent away to hospital for further evaluation to assure he had not sustained any serious injuries.
“Normally I don’t pull off after a crash but when I tried to finish the lap I couldn’t jump anything, it was just too sore,” said Gibbs. “I didn’t think it was a collarbone myself but you don’t argue with ambos. They were keen to get me an X-ray.
“Turns out nothing is broken but I’m pretty sore. I’ll get scans when I get to Brisbane and hopefully I’ll still be fine for the first round of the MX Nationals in two weeks.”
Gibbs feels that with his strong preparations he will be able to take some time off the bike in lead up to his 14 April Australian MX1 debut if need be.
“I’ve come out strong this year and trained really hard so it’s not going to matter too much if I have to stay off the bike for a little bit,” he added. “Bad starts are putting me in the wrong place at the wrong time so I need to work on that.”
“You’re always going to have hurdles and I’ll be back as soon as it’s possible to. KTM committed to me when I was still injured and they’ve done everything they can to give me the best opportunity possible so I want to show them they made a good decision by hiring me.”
Stay tuned for updates on Gibbs’ condition as the Raymond Terrace 2013 Monster Energy MX Nationals season opener looms near.