Thursday February 23, 2017 at 10:29am
The news broke this week that Tommy Searle will miss the opening round of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship at Culham Moto Park on March 12 but that doesn’t mean the reigning MX1 champion has given up on the defence of his title.
Far from it in fact…
"I hope I can still challenge for the British title,” he said. “If I miss the first round and come back healthy – which I plan on doing – for round two and start winning straight away there's no reason why I can't do that.”
The 27-year-old Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki rider injured his left knee just before Christmas during pre-season training in California. Despite an immediate operation and intensive physio he still hasn’t been back on a bike and doesn’t want to race until he feels he can be competitive.
"Obviously I want to be back as soon as I possibly can but I can't afford to race just because I can ride a bike – I need to spend time making sure I am as close to 100 per cent as possible when I start racing so I can fight for decent positions.
"I can't really do much about it other than do my best to get my leg healthy again which is what I'm doing.
"I had surgery before Christmas and I'm still recovering from that. I haven't been on a bike yet, I'm just doing my physio, staying fit training with Kirk [Gibbons] like I have done in the past and getting my leg to where I can get back on a bike hopefully in a few weeks."
Although dropping a potential 50 points to his rivals at the start of the campaign is obviously not ideal, 2016 MX2 champion Adam Sterry proved last year that it’s possible to miss the season opener and still win a title.
"I've got a good team and a good bike and there's no reason why I can't win the rest of the rounds but I just have to take it one step at a time,” added Tommy. “I still want to win that championship."
Picture (c) Nuno Laranjeira