Justin Barcia was involved in a scary crash on the opening lap of the Anaheim 1 450 feature and was transported to the hospital.
On the opening lap of the Main Event of Anaheim 1 in Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, the debut of Ducati in the SuperMotocross World Championship, Justin Barcia was involved in one of the scariest crashes of recent history.
Malcolm Stewart rolled into the first bowl turn. Barcia was already committed to jumping into the turn and landed on Stewart. The contact propelled Barcia over his handlebars, and he landed hard and awkwardly. The crash brought out a red flag.
Barcia lay motionless for several minutes as he was attended to by the Alpinestars Medical team. They strapped him to a backboard, and Barcia gave the crowd a thumbs-up as they wheeled him into the tunnel and to a local hospital.
"What's up, guys? I hope everyone is well," Barcia said on social media. "I just wanted to get back to everyone. It was a scary night. Tough practice sessions, qualifier went better. And then, yeah, the Main Event wasn't good. Unfortunately, someone rolled the triple, I was already committed, and I'm pretty sure that's about all I remember from there. Tough one. I am happy to say I was able to walk out of the hospital under my own power. I got extremely lucky; God was looking out for me yesterday. It was a really scary one. It shows you how quickly everything can be going good, and the next minute it can be gone like that."
Until the feature, Barcia rode extremely well in Ducati's debut. He and teammate Dylan Ferrandis finished third and fourth, respectively, in their heat, just behind eventual winner Eli Tomac and another feature podium finisher, Jorge Prado.
"I'm extremely beat up," Barcia continued. "Throughout my career, I've had some heavy hits, but this one is the heaviest of them. I've never been so sore in my life. Can't really move my neck. My back hurts really bad. That was the big worry for us, my back, and I got away with it. I'm good. I broke a little wing in my back — no surgery. My spine is stable. Everything is really good. I just need to recover from here on out. But I'm thinking my body is feeling okay. Obviously, it is really sore. The next few days will show a lot more stuff, but all in all, I think we're good, and I appreciate everyone reaching out to me, sticking behind me."
The timeline for Barcia's return has not yet been announced, but the bigger picture is that Barcia will be able to return to riding.
"I haven't seen the crash yet. Don't think I really want to see it. I heard it was pretty bad."
Category: General Sports
