Red Bull KTM’s Tommy Searle will make a return to MXGP several weeks earlier than expected and will enter this weekend’s Grand Prix of Trentino at Arco di Trento after recovering sufficiently from a fractured T5 vertebra.
The British star crashed heavily in the first moto at Nakhonchaisri and the Grand Prix of Thailand last month and wasn’t expected to be rolling into a GP gate until May. Searle has made good progress in his rehab and was given an all-clear to try his works 350SX-F last week.
Signs that he was advancing with his condition emerged when #100 was included on the entry list for the Grand Prix of Europe at Valkenswaard on April 25-26 but Searle – who has suffered poor luck in the last two seasons with wrist and thumb ligament injuries – has elected to get back in the MXGP groove in the coming days.
“Last Thursday I was told I could do some mountain-biking and that went okay so I flew to Italy at the weekend to try some riding,” he said exclusively. “My back feels okay but I’m a bit stiff after two days on the bike. I don’t have any pain but I know I’m lacking riding time…I think it’ll be alright for the weekend.”
The former double MX2 World Championship runner-up will take his place in a busy Red Bull KTM awning with the European EMX series’ also beginning in Italy this weekend.
