- Photo: Frank Hoppen
“He’s broken his leg, I think.” The year was 1999, and we were on our way to to where Tyla Rattray was sitting up on the track, clutching his lower leg. The prophetic words were uttered by his mechanic, trainer, mentor and (later to be) stepfather Wayne, before we had even reached the hapless rider. “How can you say that from here?” I asked. “Because he hasn’t got up yet.”
This dry remark was uttered matter-of-factly, without drama. As it turned out, Wayne was right, and what you reporterlearned that day was that this phrase pretty much summed up Tyla Rattray’s approach to racing. Throughout his career he has suffered some mighty dirtbike-powered body slams, but time and again he proved that nothing short of the proverbial steam train coming the opposite direction could prevent him from lining up at the start gate. He once famously literally spilt tears and had to be helped into his race jersey by his mom after dislocating his shoulder a few days before a race , yet gritted it out on the track to win the GP of Belgium at Neeroeteren.
This paints the picture in broad strokes, we would hazard to submit. The South African rider is made of stout stuff. When he went down hard during the qualifying race at round 4 of the AMA Supercross championship series and lay dead still, therefore, a hush descended over the Overstock Stadium in Oakland. It cyberworld immediately went ablaze, with messages firing off in all directions that the popular Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider was seriously injured. Mystifyingly, officials allowed the race to continue around he stricken rider, and it was only at the conclusion of the qualifying race that the Asterisk medical crew could cart Tyla off on a bodyboard.
For an agonizing few hours, there was precious little in the form of news emerging, but finally news broke through that, thankfully, Tyla was relatively ok, compared to the visions that sight of the crash might have raised in the mind. He had sustained a severe concussion and a small fracture of the C7 vertebrae, in itself nothing to be slighted, but a relief nonetheless after a crash that could have turned out much worse.
Tyla was well enough to fly home on Sunday, and will undergo another thorough examination on Monday. The expectations are that he will be out of action for four some six weeks, which draws a definite line under his supercross championship challenge for 2012. Due to the fact that he was (literally) counted out for this event, he has dropped to fifth in the AMA supercross standings.
There is a spectator video of the aftermath of the crash which can be viewed below:
Reporting by Tinus Nel.