While visiting our local emergency room today, we struck up a conversation with some fellow riders in the waiting room. After a little digging, we found out that they had come from the Honda factory test track with Joaquim Rodrigues, who crashed today in practice and likely has a broken leg.
Rodrigues is the latest addition to a long list of East Coast SX ‘Lites’ riders who are currently out of action due to practice injuries, including Troy Adams and Ben Townley of Kawasaki as well as KTM’s Jeff Alessi. Alessi reportedly broke his left heel along with his right navicular (a bone in the wrist that can be notoriously problematic for racers), while Townley tore basically every ligament in his right knee and will soon go under the knife to receive some cadaver-donated ligaments.
With the first East Coast Lites race coming up on February 18 in St. Louis, the series is going to be missing a few riders who had a serious chance at podium finishes. Injuries like this are dissapointing to both the fans and the riders, and we wish all those on the injured list a speedy recovery and a quick return to racing.
