This past Saturday, the 6th Namibian National Motocross Championship was held at Gallina in Windhoek. The day started off with Reiner Bekker having to withdraw from the Open Class due to work commitments. That only left Matthew riding for the Zenner Racing team. His day started well, but did not finish as wished.

During practice, Matthew had good pace and seemed to feel pretty comfortable with his bike setup. The 65cc class was first to practice and at that stage the track was still flat and no berms had formed which made turning a bit slower than would be during the heat races.

The first heat started with a holeshot for Matthew but immediately turned into a massive pile-up when he was clipped from behind. By the time he had his bike re-started and he could join the race, he was more than half a lap behind. The incident in the start must have played on his mind as he fell a further two times before the end of the heat. He however managed to still finish the heat in third place.

In the second heat he had another good start coming around the first corner in second place. He was only able to hold on to that position for a lap and was passed for third which he held comfortably until the end.

With two third places, Matthew needed only a fourth to make the podium for the day. This however was not to be. In the start Matthew cross-rutted in some exceptionally deep ruts on the first turn and fell. Two further bikes crashed into him leaving him with both bones broken in his right lower arm. He was taken to hospital immediately and received his first cast (and surely not his last). While the doctor was putting the cast on, he asked if the doctor should please hurry up as he needs to race again at Gobabis in four weeks time. Little did he know that the cast has to stay on for a minimum of six weeks and only then will he be able to get back to riding.

After such a disappointing weekend, the GOOD NEWS however is that Tommy will be back in the middle of August and will resume his racing in Namibia with Zenner Racing. He will bring along his knowledge of motocross suspension that he accumulated over the past two years working for EE Suspension in Germany. He has also been training hard and we are all looking forward to seeing him race again in Namibia.

His return will be around the time that Matthew will start riding again and both riders will be in action at the 8th round of the Namibian Championship to be held in Swakopmund on the 1st of September.