USA Insider No.124: Two More Bite The Dust

Welcome to our weekly web-exclusive column, Transmoto’s USA Insider presented by Lucas Oil. Penned each week by our man on the ground, Transmoto’s US Correspondent, Jason Weigandt, the USA Insider presents the story-behind-the-stories of the AMA supercross and motocross scene.

Man, they’re really dropping now! Word came out in the first two days of this week of two more injuries in the American supercross world. This time, it’s two 250 class riders, Justin Bogle and Joey Savatgy. Bogle is on the GEICO Honda team and was under some real pressure this year to try to fill the shoes of the graduated-to-450s riders, Justin Barcia and Eli Tomac. Team Manager, Mike LaRocco, likes to run team scrimmage races which pit the teammates against each other in motos. This year, the team has been doing some at its supercross test track built at Milestone MX. It definitely helps build speed, but there’s a danger factor, too, and Bogle scrubbed a triple too hard, snagged a footpeg and went flying.

From what I’ve heard, the crash looked a lot like teammate Zach Bell’s frightening crash at the Dallas supercross last year. Bell also snagged a peg and went flying over a triple without his bike. Bogle, like Bell, basically landed the jump with his body. Ouch. I talked to Justin this week and he said he doesn’t remember the crash since he was knocked out, but those that watched it think it was even worse than the Bell crash because the Milestone track is very fast – faster than the regular Honda test track, for example. There’s a little more room to build speed, and the jump faces aren’t quite as steep, so the boys are moving when they hit the jumps. Is the snagged-a-peg-while-scrubbing crash going to become the hot new thing in this sport? Riders are pushing the limits harder and harder in that direction.

Bogle had some broken vertebrae and a broken shoulder blade. But the vertebrae injury isn’t as serious as it sounds – I hear it’s just the tips of the bones, without any damage to the spinal cord. He could, maybe, be back for the 250 Eastern Regional opener in Dallas in mid-February, but it’s a huge maybe. More reports are expected regarding his health in a few days.

Bogle went down last week. Meanwhile, Joey Savatgy, now of the Rockstar KTM team, went down just yesterday. His situation, from what I hear, may be worse. Supposedly broken ribs, collapsed lungs and a broken wrist, at least, but this is all very new news and the official word isn’t available yet. Combine this all with last week’s injuries to Trey Canard and Davi Millsaps, and it’s been one harsh December so far.

Let’s get the darned races started!