Unfortunately for Julien Beaumer, for the second consecutive race, the Red Bull KTM rider had a crash that ended his day early. After a crash at the AMA Pro Motocross Championship finale that resulted in a concussion, Beaumer said Friday he rested and recovered the following week before then having a good week of riding leading into today's first round of the SuperMotocross World Championship SMX Playoffs. The #23 was a rider to watch today as he had a breakout ride at zMAX Dragway one year ago in his SMX Playoffs debut, landing second overall. 

But late in the second 250SMX seeded qualifying session earlier this afternoon, Beaumer had another big crash. The Arizona native went slightly long in a transition and then was going to come up short on a triple, so he ejected off the bike through the bars and went down hard on his back and left side. He was tended to by the Alpinestars medical crew as the session was red flagged. Beaumer was put on a backboard and in a neck brace, then was taken off the track on the Alpinestars medical cart. It was tough to see the young factory rider take another ride on the medical cart, knowing his race day was once again over prematurely.

KTM has announced Beaumer would be out for the remainder of today as he had been taken to a local hospital for evaluation. 

This evening, KTM provided an update on Beaumer in their post-race press release. The team announced Beaumer suffered a burst fracture of his L3 vertebra and has already went through surgery. Here is the full update.