Remy Gardner’s start to the race season, although hampered by injury, has placed him 11th out of fourty one riders at the end of the first CEV Repsol event at Jerez Circuit in Spain.
Qualifying started well, and after session one Remy was placed 7th fastest. He was feeling confident he could improve his time in the next session. Unfortunately in session two he high-sided on a flying lap, crashing badly and injuring his back and hand.
Remy was taken directly to the medical centre and advised he would need medical clearance on Sunday morning before he could race. After a check up first thing on Sunday he was cleared to race and used the warm up session to get a feel for his condition.
Remy was determined to compete, and said, “I was in a bit of pain, but felt comfortable enough to race. Jerez has never been one of my favourite tracks, but after the practice and qualifying sessions I was starting to feel confident I could do well. Unfortunately there were two Moto 3 races this weekend so I knew it was going to be tough getting through two sixteen lap races with my injuries, but knew I could do it if I just ticked off one lap at a time and focussed on finishing the races in the points.”
After the two qualifying sessions were combined, he was placed to start 12th on the grid and got a solid start in race one, maintaining position and fighting throughout the race to try and improve. “I was overtaking riders, but I had problems with the engine and just kept loosing places on the straights.
“In the end I finished race one where I started in 12th. I had a new engine and we couldn’t understand what was going wrong, so the team changed back to the old engine in between races, but it didn’t help much for race two,” said Remy. In the second race of the day, and suffering a bit more pain in his hand Remy did his best to improve position, managing to gain an extra place and going overthe line in 11th.
His father, Wayne Gardner said, “at the end of the weekend he walked away with nine points on the board and two solid finishes. He was in a lot of pain, but rode with a focussed, sensible head, thinking about the season ahead and the importance of finishing the races. Considering the circumstances he did an excellent job.”
Congratulations to Fabio Quartararo who finished 1st in race one and second in race two, also Maria Herrera who was 2nd in race one and 1st in race two; and Gabriele Rodrigo who was 3rd in race one and Andrea Migno who finished 3rd in race two.
