Chance Hymas: "Nothing’s broken, but my leg is a balloon right now."
Racing is a game of inches, literally, as proven in a first-turn crash in the second 250 moto of the FXR Spring Creek National. It looked like Chance Hymas was headed to a holeshot, but he dabbed his foot and ended up getting it caught in Haiden Deegan's bike. That pretty much ruined Deegan's chances of winning the race, as the 250 points leader went down, but it turned out even worse for Hymas, as he hurt the foot and was forced to pull out of the moto. If Hymas' foot goes a small distance in any other direction, he and Deegan are battling for the lead early in the moto.
Luckily, the injury might not be too bad for Hymas.
"It's an ankle," said Lars Lindstrom, the Honda HRC team manager to us after the race. "Nothing broken, they X rayed him. Bone bruise most likely and a good sprain. Hopefully no ligament damage, he might have to have that checked, but it sounded like it was pretty promising. He couldn't put any weight on it, so the first jump, he had to pull off."
Hymas later posted the following to social media.
"Rough weekend. Start was dialed in moto 2 but tried to catch myself from falling and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ankle is pretty banged up but going to do what I can to be ready for Washougal."
More from Hymas in a Honda press release:
“It was not an ideal end to my weekend here in Millville. I ended up fifth in the first moto, just a little off the pace of the leaders. In the second moto, I got my leg run over off the start, and that was the end of my race. Thankfully, nothing’s broken, but my leg is a balloon right now. We’ll get it looked at this week and try to get healed up for Washougal.”
Deegan had some pointed comments regarding Hymas on the podium, but when asked in the post-race press conference, he simply went with "It is what it is."
The previous weekend, the Honda HRC 250 riders of Hymas and Jo Shimoda went 1-2 in the second moto. In this second moto at Spring Creek, neither finished! Hymas was forced out with the foot injury, and Shimoda's brake disc was damaged in the first-turn crash. He stopped in the mechanics' area twice and even made a wheel change, but by then he was two laps down, and then retired back to the pits.
Deegan rallied all the way back to fourth in the moto, which gave him second overall.
