IN
THE
WIND
P44
CHARBONEAU
INJURED
A
merican Tristan Charboneau (ASTES4-
TESAR Yamaha) was supposed to
have suited up for the opening round of
the EMX250 Championship, which runs
in conjunction with the FIM MXGP series,
last week, March 25, but sat out the race
with a knee injury that he suffered while
competing in a warm-up race in Italy.
Charboneau has since returned to the
U.S. for surgery.
"Two-and-a-half weeks ago at Otto-
biano, in Italy, I had a very small crash
coming over the hump before the finish line,"
Charboneau said via his team's website. "It was
very cold out and the ground was really hard and
cold. The front just came out from under me and I
thought, 'I will slide this one out and get up,' but as
I was sliding, I twisted my leg and heard my knee
pop super badly, so I knew instantly that something
was wrong. Four days later I went and got an MRI,
it was the soonest I could get in, and they told me
I had a bilateral tear and that there was a piece of
my meniscus that had broken off and was floating
around. Apparently that is where most of the pain is
coming from. It's been difficult to accept.
"I will head back to the U.S. and get this knee
fixed to be back on the track as soon as possible,"
he added. "I want to come back when my knee is
100 percent. I want to come back and win races;
mid-pack will not be good enough." CN
Tristan Charboneau
suffered a knee
injury that will keep
him from competing
in the FIM EMX250
Championship.
The exact cause of the crash is
unknown, and will require a thorough
examination of the video and data
from the streamliner once it makes
its return trip back to Grass Valley,
California. But for now, streamliner
builder Denis Manning is satisfied with
the performance of the safety features
of the "Bub 7" machine. "She walked
away," Manning said. "That's the vic-
tory."
Jean Turner
News from the event was overshadowed
by Valerie Thompson's infamous crash at
343 mph in the Bub 7 streamliner.
