RJ Hampshire Provides Update After Houston 3 Qualifying Crash
During the Houston 3 Supercross on January 23, RJ Hampshire hard a hard crash during the first qualifying session of the day. Although not much information was known at the time, Racer X did learn that Hampshire would not compete for the remainder of the day. This morning, Hampshire took to Instagram this morning to announce the crash resulted in several issues in both his right wrist and left hand/wrist. He posted the following, explaining the injuries and his disappointment with himself.
"Last week was rough. Saturday I had a crash in free practice which resulted in a Perilunate dislocation to my right wrist, chipped my ulna and fractured a metacarpal in my left hand. They reset my wrist in the hospital Saturday but had surgery Wednesday to repair the ligaments. Obviously it’s devastating. I’m disappointed in Myself and for the people that support me. All there’s to do is continue to be the best person I can be on and off the bike, pick myself up and move on. I have a lot left and will work on being better. I appreciate the support and looking forward to a better comeback!”
Through the first two rounds of the 2021 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, Hampshire finished fifth and ninth, respectively. Following a block pass from Christian Craig at the season opener, Hampshire said he underwent stiches on his hand. Hampshire acknowledged the hand injury in a virtual press conference following the second round.
“I need to just take these days we have to recover. I was pretty beat up from round one, plus I had to get stitches right after the main event.”
He later commented more on his hand injury and how extra days between races would have helped his injuries recover:
“For sure, because I would have gotten my stitches out before we went racing. My hand was pretty beat up from Saturday. It wasn’t a small cut, I had to get seven stitches and the gash was just completely cut open. When I tried to race the main event, it ripped it open even more. My glove was pretty much filled with blood. But hey, we’re all dealt the same thing and we’ve just gotta’ suck it up at the next one.”
In 2020, Hampshire’s debut season with the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna team was cut short due to a knee injury. Despite suffering a torn ACL in December 2019 during off-season training, the Florida native competed in the first four 250SX East Region races and sat third in the championship following the Daytona Supercross. However, once the championship was postponed due to COVID-19 Hampshire decided to undergo knee surgery because of the uncertainty of when the supercross season would resume. Once it did several months later, it was too soon for Hampshire to race again so he was sidelined for the final rounds. He finished tenth in the standings. But he did return to racing for the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, where he finished seventh in the 250 Class.
