Christian Craig Provides Update After Hand Injury at Orlando 1 SX
On the second lap of the second 250SX heat race on Saturday night’s Orlando 1 Supercross, Christian Craig crashed hard and landed on his right (throttle) hand. Craig scrubbed the takeoff of a supercross triple, just barely catching the top of the landing jump, which caused his back end to swap out back and forth on the following two take-offs. Craig was thrown from his Yamaha and he landed with his right arm underneath him before coming to a halt in a pile of mud and Tuff Blox on the inside of the 180-degree turn between the whoops.
Check out Craig’s crash in the heat race in the highlights below:
Craig was slow to get up and was favoring his right hand/wrist. He was attended to by the Alpinestars Medical Crew before remounting his YZ250F and heading straight back to the pits.
He lined up for and won the LCQ (saying afterwards his grip straight was "really weak") before finishing the main event in third place behind winner Jett Lawrence and his teammate/championship leader Colt Nichols, keeping his chances at the 250SX East Region title alive.
Craig said the following in the post-race press release from Yamaha:
“The weekend started off great. I qualified first. I loved this track, everything about it. The dirt was hard-packed, just like the test track, so I was feeling so good. I got off to a good start in the heat race, and then on the second lap, some sort of little case turned into a big fall. I’m sure everyone has seen it on TV. I banged up my hand pretty good. I wasn’t sure I was even going to race, but we had it taped up by Dr. G. and had to grit it out. I knew I had to do what I could to get through tonight. We have 10 weeks after this, so I can heal up then. I was able to get out to a good start from way on the outside in the Main. I got into third quick and stayed with Colt for a lot of the race. Then I had some sketchy moments, so I backed it off and finished third. I only lost two points to Colt. After the Heat race, if you would have told me I’d get third, I would have been jumping up and down. It was a win in my books after that crash. We've got a long break, so we’re going to heal up and get ready for Salt Lake.”
Here is what Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing 250 team manager Wil Hahn said:
“For Christian, to rebound after that heat race crash and win the LCQ and show that much heart in the Main Event, that’s a pretty big breakthrough. That’s huge for him. It’s got to feel good going into this break knowing that he’s still only eight points out of the championship lead. All in all, it was a positive night.”
Craig also posted the following on Instagram after the race but he did not go into details on the injury.
He posted the following photo on his Instagram story.
On Sunday, Christian’s wife Paige posted an update on after X-rays, which didn't indicate any fractures.
Following the seventh round of the championship, Craig (158 points) sits second to Nichols (166 points) with only two rounds remaining in the 250SX East Region Championship.
The 250SX East Region now has the built-in pause in its championship as the 250SX West Region kicks off this weekend at the Orlando 2 Supercross. The 250SX East Region will resume on April 24 at the Salt Lake City 1 Supercross, following by the Salt Lake City 2 Supercross (the one and only 250SX East/West Showdown of the year) that will conclude the 2021 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.
