Bradley Smith to ride through pain barrier in German 125 MotoGP

Bradley Smith will grit his teeth and brave the pain after declaring he will try and race in the German 125 MotoGP at the Sachsenring circuit on July 15, 2007. 

The 16-year-old is currently recuperating at his Oxfordshire home after he suffered multiple fractures following a horrific accident in practice for the Dutch MotoGP in Assen at the end of last month.

Bradley Smith suffered fractures in his left hand, left foot and left knee after Andrea Iannone struck him at nearly 100mph in Holland.

He is currently on crutches with a lightweight cast fitted below the knee but Bradley Smith is confident he will be fit enough to ride his Repsol Honda machine in the Germany clash.

“The plan is to go to Germany and give it a go,” Smith told MCN this morning after he underwent treatment earlier this week in Spain.

“It’s good that I can be back in Germany because at first I didn’t think I’d be back for that. It’s nice to think that I can be back out on the bike before Brno.

“If I had to wait for that it would have been an absolute nightmare,” added Smith.

His only real concern about returning to action in Germany is the fact that the Sachsenring is a left-hand circuit, with 10 of the 14 corners left-handers.

That will place extra stress on his left leg but he said: “Racing shouldn’t be too much of a problem but the only bit that I’ve got any doubt about is that it’s a left hand circuit and its my left leg that’s taken the battering.

“I’m definitely going to and try and ride. I need to get a bit more movement in the leg but the bruising is coming out now in all green and blue down my leg. It doesn’t look too nice.”

Bradley Smith said he is likely to ride in a special cast to support his left leg and will also have a special bigger left boot modified.

Talking of the crash Bradley Smith said: “I came away with it very lightly to be honest. My boots have carbon fibre on the inside and without that my leg would have been broken in bits.

“I moved over, two riders passed and the next thing ‘bang’ he just rammed straight into my leg. I was wary of people coming.

“I looked behind and saw they were coming so I even looked back to make sure I was as far off the track as I could be. As I glanced again he was right there and hit me. I had no time to react at all.

“I was doing about 60ks and he was doing about 200 it’s not a good combination. I literally glanced and all I saw was yellow and thought ‘oh no this could hurt’.

“Next thing I know I was trying to stop with my head because my hand was broken. I thought I’d broken my leg. When I first went down I thought it had gone in the side.

“I broke it in 2003 and that’s what ended motocross for me and I took up road racing. I was freaking out that I’d done it again.”