Nathan Crawford: Title Interrupted

Nathan Crawford opens up about the injury that deprived him of a MX Nats title, and how this season’s “drug cheat” accusations affected him.

For the past three seasons, Husqvarna Australia has backed a talented young Brisbane-based racer called Nathan Crawford. And their commitment looked certain to pay dividends in the form of an MX2-class title this year. Coming into the MX Nats series’ decider at Coolum, the kid held an 11-point lead in the standings, and he was relishing the prospect of closing out the title in Coolum’s deep sand, his favourite terrain. But in a cruel twist of fate, a practice crash just three days prior to that final round left Crawford with a lacerated spleen and kidney. Unable to race, he watched his points lead evaporate and the title slip from his grasp.

Just weeks on from that agonising reality, the likeable 19-year-old is philosophical about the turn of events and impressively capable of putting the entire season in perspective. And for the first time, he speaks candidly about his ASADA drug testing experience, and the impact of the widespread “drug cheat” accusations that followed it.

TM: Righto, let’s address the elephant in the room, Nato; tell us about the injury.
NC: On the Wednesday before Coolum, I was down at the practice track with a few guys – like Kade Mosig and Kyle Peters – and I lost the rear over a bit of a grassy edge. As the bike flung around, it whipped me forward and the handlebars hit me in the guts before I hit the ground. The impact of me hitting the ground really wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t a high-speed crash or a massive over-the-bars. It was the fact the end of the handlebars had slammed me right in the ‘sweet spot’ of my guts; that’s what did the damage. I felt really winded straight away. And because it still hurt a lot after I got my breath back, I knew something was wrong. But I had no idea to what extent. I was thinking I had no broken bones and that I’d come good. I felt a bit nauseous on the way home from the track, and then when I took a shower at home, I saw that there was blood in my urine. I went to the hospital straight away for a scan, which showed that I’d lacerated my spleen and my kidney. The good thing is that the injury wasn’t bad enough for them to have to surgically remove the organs.

But it came with some bad news too, right?
I’ve always found that doctors make an injury sound really bad. In my eyes, I was not going to let this stop me; I was lining up at Coolum for the series decider that Sunday, no matter what. But by Friday night, I couldn’t even get out of the hospital bed. I was not in a good way, so me and Dad had a talk about the weekend. We knew that racing with the injury could do a lot more damage, and that my health was the most important thing. Obviously, making the call not to race was really hard. It sucked. But when I put the whole year in perspective, I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve achieved.

Let’s put your last few years in perspective. You’ve come a long way since 2013, when you were still a Junior who won titles on both the 125 and 250F.
Yeah, I have. In my first year in Seniors, in 2014, I rode Husqvarna’s 250cc two-stroke, and if I didn’t have a bike malfunction, I would have won the MXD title that year. As it was, I finished second to Egan Mastin. Dad’s always tended to throw me in the deep end; he’s always pushed me to step up classes early to gain the experience. That’s why I only spent a year in the MXD class before moving into MX2 for 2015. The MX2 class was stacked last year and it took me while to get my head around riding the 250F and getting it set up right. Plus we had a few random mechanicals last season – like a busted chain – and I missed a round after dislocating my shoulder. I ended up in sixth Overall, which, considering the circumstances, was not too bad. Husqvarna must have liked what they saw in me because they put me on a salary for 2016, and continued to give me really good support with the bikes and parts.

But it wasn’t an ideal start to the 2016 season, was it?
No. I broke my leg in the supercross late last year, which meant I had to take six months off. I got back on the bike only two weeks before the first round this year. It was the first time I’d ridden the new-generation FC250, so I was suspension testing with Kenny from Factory Tech on that very first ride back because we knew we had no time to waste. We sorted this bike out way quicker this year, and then got it even better throughout the year – mainly by fine-tuning the suspension.

And the red plate was never far from your reach all season…
During the first four rounds, I was always within striking distance of the red plate. The gap between me and first place was never more than 11 points, so the racing had been really tight. That set me up nicely for when we got into the softer tracks of Wanneroo and Murray Bridge. I’m pretty good on hardpack, but I really like the sand. Wanneroo in WA is probably my favourite track in Australia. It gets gnarly, rough and deep, and my fitness had improved by the time the series went to the West. I rocked up there only 1 point behind Jed Beaton in the standings, and I left there with a 14-point lead. The second half of the season started off a bit rusty, but I still managed to hold the points lead right up to the Shepparton round, which was Round 8 of 10.

And that’s where things took a turn for a worse, right?
Yeah. I copped a 15-second penalty at Shepparton – for supposedly jumping under a yellow flag – and that lost me the red plate. That friggin’ penalty also cost me a place on the Australian Motocross of Nations team, which really sucked cos I never saw any yellow flag being waved. Motorcycling Australia had made it clear that whoever had the lead in the MX2 class points after Shepp would be picked for the Aussie MXoN team. It wasn’t easy, but I just had to suck it up and take that one on the chin. Going into the penultimate round at Toowoomba, Jed Beaton and I were tied on points, but I had a really good round there and managed to get 11 points on him heading into the series’ decider at Coolum.

Tell us a bit about that rivalry with Jed Beaton. It seemed to get pretty heated in the back half of the season.
At the start of the year, Jed and I were getting along fine. We were rivals, but in a good way. We didn’t have any beef. Then at the Murray Bridge round, where me and three other riders were tested by ASADA, things changed. People began accusing me of being a drug cheat. Jed’s brother, Ross, said he believed they weren’t fighting on a level playing field (I should say that, when it was finally announced my results came back negative, Ross came up to me and apologised, which was a cool thing to do). But the speculation had taken on a life of its own at that stage. I don’t know the full extent of what went down and what was said and by whom, because my Dad was the one who copped a lot of the criticism. He didn’t pass it on to me because he didn’t want it to mess with my head.

There were all sorts of rumours of you refusing to take the ASADA test and kicking things around in the pits. Any truth in that?
There were a bunch of rumours getting around, and all of them were complete bullshit. People just fabricated things, which I thought was a really strange way to react to the fact I’d simply been tested. Maybe it had something to do with the fact they’d seen the ASADA guy following me around for an hour-and-a-half. That’s what happens with their testing protocol. One ASADA guy is assigned to you and he follows you around until your capable of taking a piss; to make sure the sample is legit. Who knows what led people to think I had anything to worry about.

How hard was it to put those accusations out of your mind and focus on racing?
I knew I hadn’t taken anything, so I had nothing to worry about. It didn’t bother me until people – people who I didn’t even know – started saying I was guilty of being a drug cheat. Then it started to piss me off a lot. Last year, I was a fifth-placed guy with a podium here and there. And this year I came out firing after the busted leg and was on the podium pretty much all the time. That’s the only reason I can think why people might have thought I’d been cheating. The reality is, I’d put my head down and trained my arse off all year. So it was nice when the announcement from MA finally cleared me. It was only then that I could fully put it all behind me.

All of which must have made the eleventh-hour injury that much harder to stomach – if you’ll excuse the pun!
I got the injury on the Wednesday before Coolum and it was really tough making the call not to race that weekend. It was even tougher going to that final round to watch. I was tossing up that decision in my head. Obviously with Husqvarna and KTM being connected, I wanted to go to Coolum to support KTM’s Caleb Ward, who was still in with a shot at the MX2 title. And I knew I couldn’t lose third Overall in the championship, so it made sense to be there to collect that. But it was really tough to actually be there and watch the title slip through my fingers, without being able to do anything about it. Jed Beaton rode really well and earned the win at Coolum. Seeing that just fuelled the fire for me to want to get better, get back on the bike and get out there and win myself a title.

After everything that went down this season, did you congratulate Jed?
I did when we were on the series podium together, but I didn’t go out of my way to do it. It was still pretty raw for me. We’ve got the Australian Supercross Championship coming up, so I’m looking forward to putting up a good showing there. I’ll miss Jimboomba’s opener, but I’ll be on the gate at Round 2 in Toowoomba.

Good luck, Nato. You’re owed some.
Thanks, Andy.