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IOL News
6 days ago
- Sport
- IOL News
The weight of success: Ruchè Moodley's parents recount horror of son's crash
An emotional Arushen recalled: 'I ran over the track. The race was stopped. I ran over to him and opened his visor. His face was swollen and he wasn't responding to anything. I just thought that was it. 'When I heard he was going to ICU, I freaked out. I spent that entire night on my knees praying. It was a horrible time and hard to see your child in so much pain,' she added. 'I was watching the live timing and just saw a red flag. I messaged Arushen and asked him what's going on but he didn't reply. About half an hour late, he called me and said they are on the way to the hospital,' Chanelle Moodley said. Ruchè said it was the worst injury of his career so far, after hitting a tree and fracturing his skull. The 11-year-old Ruchè at the time, also hurt his right leg. In a new episode on Red Bull's Born Racers, the parents of South African Moto3 rider Ruchè Moodley detailed the pain of watching their son experience an almost-fatal crash at just 11-years-old. Arushen and Chanelle Moodley have had to ensure the type of torment that comes with the territory when your son wants to race motorcycles for a living. 'Everyone that saw the impact, even the doctor said 'it was impossible for the kid to survive that'. Luckily, there was a good surgeon and they managed to relieve pressure on his brain and resuscitate him. I definitely think on that day, Ruchè had a guardian angel. Even though my dad has passed away, when Ruchè races I always look up to the sky and ask for his protection.' After the crash at 11-years-old, both Chanelle and Arushen expected their son to quit the racing dream but he was adamant on pushing on. In fact, Ruchè said he got faster after the crash. 'I don't know why it made me quicker but it made me fear less about riding. Because I knew if I did crash what would happen and I knew I could manage it,' Ruchè said. Fast forward just under a decade later, and the younger rider has suffered two crashes this season in the Moto3, with the second one causing more extensive damage to his right hand and shoulder. Judging by Arushen and Chanelle's reaction when he suffered the near fatal crash all those years ago, the fear running through their body after watching him crash on the world stage may have been overwhelming. 'Grateful to be here after a scary crash in Mugello last Sunday. I've got a few fractures but I am in good care. Thank you to my team @boe_motorsports ,friends, family and medical team for all the care and support,' Ruchè wrote on his social media from a hospital bed in Barcelona. Ruchè currently lives in Europe with his family who are mainly there to support his racing career, as life on the series can be a bit lonely for teenagers with no friends abroad. The young South African said he doesn't really have many friends on the tour or back home in South Africa. His father is his best friend both on and off the track. The teenager racer also previously told Independent Sports his missed the food back home but was grateful he found a little curry joint in Spain. Luckily though, Ruchè just so happens to be from the same province as MotoGP winner Brad Binder, who tries to keep ties with Ruchè as close as he can while managing his own career. 'I remember I used to coach a little when they raced the 100cc class in South Africa and that's where I first met him. I keep an eye and see if there is anything I can try and do to help,' Binder said.
Otago Daily Times
14-07-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Buchanan ‘positive' after career-best ninth
Southland rider Cormac Buchanan recorded a career-best result at the technically demanding Sachsenring in the Moto3 World Championship yesterday. Finishing ninth, just 1.5sec from victory, after an intense 20-lap battle, which included a stint in the podium positions, the 18-year-old delivered an impressive performance in unpredictable conditions throughout the German Grand Prix. "It was a positive weekend ... it was one I was really looking forward to as it's one of my favourite tracks from when I raced here with Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup three years ago," he said. "I'm satisfied for this moment, but I want more." The opening day was more favourable than expected. Friday's sessions were held in dry conditions, allowing the riders to focus on fine-tuning their setup without having to deal with the instability of a wet track. Buchanan completed both sessions with increasing pace, although he did not make it directly into Q2, instead qualifying for the Q1 playoff. Rain fell from the start, leaving the track completely wet in every session. Buchanan showed off his natural talent in the wet, dominating Q1 and advancing to Q2, where he achieved an excellent eighth on the grid, his best qualifying of the year. In yesterday's race, Buchanan made a spectacular start, moving into third place early then remaining solidly in the lead group. Finishing ninth was an important step in his progression within the Moto3 ranks. "I got a great start and was P4 by turn one and then went into third and held that for a couple of laps. I got passed by some riders and I found it difficult to come back from that straight away. "The tyre didn't feel so great even from the early laps so I had to manage that situation. I dropped down to 15th but managed to regain some positions and get back into the top 10. "I was feeling really good and ready to make a charge but unfortunately the tyres hindered that. "It was a case of bringing it home safely which I did in ninth. I'm happy enough but honestly, within myself, there's an element of disappointment as I really feel like an even better result was on the cards today and I knew I could challenge." Meanwhile, Marc Marquez proved once again why he is known as the King of Sachsenring yesterday when the Ducati rider marked his 200th MotoGP start by winning the German Grand Prix in a race that became a test of survival after only 10 riders finished, Reuters reports. Marquez's ninth MotoGP victory at the Sachsenring stretched his championship lead over brother Alex, who finished second, to 83 points while Marc's team-mate, Francesco Bagnaia, finished third to sit 147 points behind. It was a fourth straight weekend in which Marquez had won both the sprint and the race.
CNN
11-07-2025
- Automotive
- CNN
Two brothers, one title dream – MotoGP's high stakes sibling rivalry
World class sporting siblings may not be unheard of, but with the notable exception of Serena and Venus Williams in tennis, they are rarely in direct competition for the same big prize. Rarer still is a story with as many twists and turns as that of Marc and Álex Márquez, two brothers from the tiny town of Cervera in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia. Currently lying first and second in the MotoGP standings, they are vying for a world title at speeds of over 220 mph (354 kph) as the Formula One of motorcycle racing approaches the halfway point of the season. Undoubtedly among the greatest ever motorcycle racers, Marc Márquez is seeking his first premier class crown since 2019, after overcoming a series of horrendous injuries, a debilitating eye condition – diplopia – that left him seeing double, and parting company with Repsol Honda, the team for which he had won six premier class titles. Now riding a factory Ducati, MotoGP's glamorous equivalent of F1's Ferrari, the 32-year-old is seeking his seventh crown. No one, however, expected his younger brother, Álex, to be snapping at his heels. The junior Márquez cuts a contrasting figure to his steely, laser-focused elder sibling. A full four inches taller, but three years younger than Marc, he is a picture of affability, exuding warmth, patience and good humor throughout the paddock. When Álex arrives a few minutes late to speak to CNN Sports, his press officer laughs, lamenting the fact that they would have made it on time if the rider 'didn't stop to say hi to literally everyone.' Álex knows what it's like to be a world champion, with both Moto3 and Moto2 titles to his name, but until this season had rarely troubled the podium in MotoGP. Riding for the satellite Gresini Ducati team, on the 2024 version of Marc's factory bike, something has suddenly clicked; with six podiums and a win from the first nine races, he is a genuine title contender. 'This bike was easy from the first moment, it's good for my riding style, so I didn't need to change a lot,' Álex explains. 'Me and Marc were coming from a 2023 bike that was really difficult to ride … last year's bike was a nightmare on corner entry. 'When you're on a bike and you're thinking a lot, you're slow; when you're on a bike and you don't need to change your riding style a lot and you can just build speed, you're really fast, and this is what the 2024 bike has given to me, it's better in all the areas, so it's much easier for me. When you're enjoying it and you're fast, it's easy.' Álex knows no one expected his ascent this term and says he can feel the shifting dynamic of competing at the very top. 'It's more pressure, but in a super nice situation,' he tells CNN Sports. 'Because, at the beginning of this season, nobody was waiting for us and suddenly we are there fighting with Marc. You know everybody was expecting the fight between Marc and (two-time MotoGP world champion) Pecco (Bagnaia), not me, but we are there.' Marc was also riding for the Gresini team last season, before the switch up to the pressure cooker of the factory team this year. Álex believes the additional expectation Marc has taken on might weigh the elder sibling down. 'We have nothing to lose, they have many things to lose because, in an official team, do you need to win? Yes or yes. When you're in an independent team, you have last year's bike, the goal always is to make some podiums, try to win some races, but fighting for the championship is difficult because we don't have the official bike.' While Álex can draw on his own experience of winning world titles, he says the tricky times he endured in his first few years in MotoGP, on struggling teams, have taught him more about racing and life. 'When I won a world championship, everything came quite – not easy – but in an automatic way. I won the second year, I saw my brother winning every year, you think that the normal thing is to win. No, the normal thing in the sport is to lose. You lose more than you win, it's like this,' he explains. 'So those years that I passed that were really difficult for me and really frustrating, gave to me the lesson like: OK, when you have a good moment – a pole position, or a top five, or a podium – enjoy it like it's the last one because the sport is like this. One year, you are up there; the next day, you are down here. So when you are up there enjoy, when you are down here, work. This is the lesson I learned during bad years.' While Álex has had lows, none compare to those his brother has faced. A badly broken right arm during the 2020 season needed seemingly endless surgeries after Marc attempted to return to racing too soon and aggravated the injury. Along with numerous other broken bones, as well as the psychological and physiological trauma of his recurring episodes of diplopia, his entire career looked to be in jeopardy. Álex had a front row seat to all of this, and the brothers continue to be extraordinarily close, sharing a motorhome at the track, a house in Madrid, and training together each day. The strain on Marc was clear in those dark times, Álex recalls to CNN Sports. 'For sure, if he wins this championship, he will deserve it. Everything that he passed, I don't know how many surgeries… In that situation, it was difficult for the people who were close to him. He was like another person, another character, he was angry with everybody. We said one day, 'Why are you angry with the people who are on your side?'' When Marc decided to have further surgery on his arm, it was partly to save his career, but also simply to enable him to live with less pain, Álex says. 'He came back a little bit in that mood that he was Marc, making jokes, being nice with people and all that because he was sharing all that pain that he had in his body with the people that were really close, family and friends and all that. After everything he has (gone through), he deserves it, to be there.' The fact that the two are vying for the title might reasonably have driven a wedge between the brothers. Instead, the opposite has happened, Álex says. 'When you're in this situation you have two options: you can come away and separate a bit, or you can be closer. Naturally, we have that protective side from your brother, and we are more close, we talk more than ever, we share things more than ever, we are every day together, training with the bicycle, in the gym and all that, so it's nice to have that.' Julià Marquez, the brothers' father, is an ever-present figure at races and vouches for that strengthened bond. 'Personally, from what I see and what I hear in the family, I think this competition has actually united them,' he tells CNN Sports. 'Their relationship is far more positive, stronger and closer, and that is incredible. I'm very proud of that.' The family bond runs deep, and both Julià and mother Roser play an active role in their sons' lives. Julià says he works hard to make sure his involvement is at just the right level. 'I started with my children from scratch, since they were very little, we always went together, we trained together, all of the races together. I took the motorhome and drove them there, and I like being by their side,' he explains. 'Their personal relationship is very good, but I make sure that I separate their job and being a father. I'm here with them, the relationship is great, but I don't get involved. Away from the track, it's different because I can behave like a father.' Do they ever fight? 'Is there any family that doesn't argue?' Julià says. 'But their fights last five minutes. After that time, they're like this,' he says, pulling his mouth into a broad grin with his fingers. 'Back to normal.' Marc says, even during race weekends, the pair remains close, both on and off the track. 'Today, we were having a nice time together in the motorhome, siesta together in the motorhome before FP2 (free practice), discussing about the front feeling (of the bikes),' he told CNN Sports during a rider briefing at the Italian MotoGP. 'We speak about the feelings on the bike, but in the end, he has his strategy with his chief mechanic, and I have my strategy with my chief mechanic, and different riding styles. In the end, he feels one thing on the bike, I feel another thing, but the lap times are very close.' Álex says the proximity provides motivation: 'I know that I'm training with my rival for the championship, but there's something super nice to say, 'Okay, I want to beat him,' so the goal every day, you know, I want to beat him on the bicycle, I want to beat him in the gym, and I think it's a nice competition. We arrive both on a really high level because that everyday competition that you have, every day you are growing up more and more.' Veteran MotoGP journalist and former racer Mat Oxley is putting the finishing touches to a biography of Marc Márquez and can also attest to the brothers' sincere closeness. 'I think it's very genuine, they obviously adore each other,' he tells CNN Sports. 'The parents have done a really good job bringing them up, they didn't take them out of school, which a lot of parents do, and I think it's a fairly humble, working-class family, but they've obviously brought them up in a very special way because they're both incredibly polite, well behaved.' While the younger Márquez seems almost universally popular with race fans, Marc is more divisive, primarily due to his rivalry with the legendary Valentino Rossi and that pair's infamous clash a decade ago in Malaysia, which saw the Italian penalized after tangling with Márquez during a heated duel on track – effectively curtailing Rossi's bid for an eighth premier class title. Even many Ducati fans have never forgiven the Spaniard. That enmity is a source of immense frustration for Ducati team manager, Davide Tardozzi: 'It's something that I hate because people still have in mind what happened 10 years ago, but they do not know how it happened, they know only the final things of the race on Sunday in Malaysia, but they do not know what's before,' he tells CNN Sports. 'I don't want to say that it's not Marc's fault, I don't want to say it's not Valentino's fault. I think that both of them made mistakes and, honestly, it's time to quit this thing. Because having Marc in the team for a while, I understand how this guy is – not the champion, the guy, the person – and he's a very human person, a very honest person, and I think if people spend time with him, they understand that there is much, much more than what they think.' Oxley says Marc's on-track personality is a complete contrast to the man off the track. 'Marc is a killer, more than anyone, on the track; but off it, I've worked with him for years as a journalist, and he's never tetchy, rude, distracted, he's always there, and a lot of riders are not like that.' After Álex crashed out of the Dutch MotoGP, Marc cemented a 68-point championship lead, one which might look unassailable, even with 12 races remaining. But MotoGP historians will note that Francesco 'Pecco' Bagnaia overhauled a 91-point gap on rival Fabio Quartararo to win the 2022 title, and with the precariousness of bike racing and 37 points up for grabs every race weekend, there is still plenty left to compete for. In Assen, Marc reacted angrily to the suggestion that his brother wasn't trying as hard as he could to beat him. Would the brothers ever go easy on one another? 'I think now, mid-season, no,' Julià laughs, 'because they are competing for points for the championship. Now, towards the end of the season, in different positions (to now) they might help each other, for teamwork, it would be family work.' If it came to it, with the title on the line, on the last corner of the final race, what would happen? Tardozzi believes no quarter would be given. 'The relationship between the brothers, I think is something that is unique in the world. But in the end, I think both of them knows the level of the other. I think Marc is slightly faster than Álex and Álex knows that; that doesn't mean that if it's possible Álex won't fight to win, or that Marc will not try to overtake his brother on the last corner,' he tells CNN Sports. 'Because, in the end, racing is racing, and they will joke together in the motorhome or at home because they are also living in the same house in Madrid. 'But in the end, when they close the visor in their helmets, they think only to win.'
The Citizen
30-06-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
Brad Binder craves ‘some extra speed' after mediocre outing
Red Bull KTM man admits his lap times was way too slow at the Dutch MotoGP. Red Bull KTM rider Brad Binder must feel confident in auditioning for the sequel to the Hollywood movie Need for Speed. The Red Bull KTM rider's 11th place in the main race of the Grand Prix of the Netherlands was a decent result after his struggles throughout the weekend, but mediocre by his own high standard nonetheless. He was the first admit he needs to find some extra speed after all three the other KTM riders finished ahead of him at the Assen TT Circuit. 'We need to go home and analyse where I was losing the time. In general, it is nothing too serious we just need a bit more speed,' Binder told the KTM website. Brad Binder's lap times 'too slow' After regaining some confidence with a solid ninth place finish during the previous round at Mugello, Binder's weekend at Assen got off to a poor start. He could only qualify in 16th place and finish 10th and out of the points in the sprint race. 'I didn't have much pace all weekend. I could do the same time every lap but it was too slow and I missed the speed here,' he added. 'It's been tough and the only positive is that I finished both races. But that doesn't mean much to me.' ALSO READ: Brad Binder: Sleeping at home and racing at Kyalami will be 'sick' The five points Binder earned at Assen saw him move up to 47 points, keeping him 13th in the title race. His factory KTM team-mate Pedro Acosta is in eighth place on 98 points. No luck for Darryn Out in front, Marc Marquez (307) is running away with the premier class championship. He leads his brother Alex Marques by 68 points after Alex crashed out on Sunday. Brad Binder's brother Darryn Binder crashed out of the Moto2 race at Assen on lap 11. He is on 10 points which places him 21st in the title race. Moto3 rider Ruché Moodley was ruled out of the Dutch MotoGP with a shoulder injury. The teenager suffered a fracture during a crash at Mugello and his return date has not been set yet. The next stop on the calendar is the Sachenring in Germany next weekend, the first of a double header which concludes in the Czech Republic.
IOL News
26-06-2025
- Automotive
- IOL News
South African Moto3 rider Ruché Moodley lucky to walk away from ‘scary' Mugello crash
Ruche Moodley. Photo: BOE Motorsports Image: BOE Motorsports It's been a painful year for South African Moto3 rookie rider Ruché Moodley after he sustained another fall and fracture in Italy last Sunday in what many described as a scary crash. Within the space of four months, Moodley's had surgery twice on his right hand, and sustained three fractures to his right side limbs. The recent 'scary' crash at Mugello saw him walk away with a fracture to his right shoulder blade. Moodley went down in the opening lap of the Mugello Grand Prix, and was then struck by some riders following behind him. In moments leading up to the crash, though, the rookie showed positive intent. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading The South African teenager had to undergo an MRI scan to confirm if he sustained damage to his spine. In a recent social media post, Moodley posted an image from his hospital bed in Barcelona, stating that he was in recovery and that he suffered 'a few fractures'. 'Grateful to be here after a scary crash in Mugello last Sunday. I've got a few fractures, but I am in good care. Thank you to my team BOE motorsports, friends, family and medical team for all the care and support. Time to recover,' Moodley said. In the sessions leading up to the crash, Moodley still looked like he was getting back to his usual pace before the April crash. There's no denying that the young rider is going to be out for a while following the Mugello wipe-out, and hopefully rehabilitating his right side arm, which has endured severe stress this season. At the end of April, Moodley fell and crashed in Jerez, Spain and fractured his right radius, causing two other riders to crash well – David Almansa and David Munoz. A rider's right arm is used to accelerate a motorcycle, and young Moodley's has suffered a great deal this year.
