Lenz breaks arm in Calgary
Jul 10, 2007, By Staff, ©Copyright 2007, MiniGPX.com
Up and coming youth road racer Peter Lenz has been taken out of contention for the Canadian National Championship when this weekend's starting grid pile up resulted in a ghost riding bike running over Peter’s right forearm breaking both bones.
The weekend was looking good. Peter had spent all day Saturday working with his California Superbike School riding coach, Misti Hurst. The result of their efforts were stellar. Peter was on pole for four classes and he was starting from 2nd and 4th in the other two. Pretty good for not having ridden the Race City track over a year. Peter had a legitimate shot at winning all six of his classes based on his Sunday morning warm-up times.
Peter started his race day with a dominant win in the Under-21 spec supersport class on his Metrakit Canada supplied MiniGP 50. Unfortunately his day was cut short in the next class, Formula GP.
Lining up behind pole on the second row Peter looked to have a clear lane to the front. When the green flag dropped Peter was able to move up between the front row bikes. Unfortunately Peter and his bike are shorter than most other riders and he wasn’t noticed as the riders prepared for the first corner. The compression of the grid resulted in Peter’s left handbar and the elbow of the pole rider making contact with such force as to counter-steer Peter’s bike into the bike on his right, resulting in an eight bike pile up. While the initial crash didn’t hurt Peter, as he lay on the ground a riderless bike ghost rode right over Peter’s right forearm resulting in both bones being broken. A video of the pile up is posted on his website http://www.peterlenz.com/news/.
All things considered, Peter was blessed to escape any serious injury beyond the broken bones. Unfortunately the crash will see him sit out of racing action for up to six weeks, sitting him out of two of the five national rounds, effectively taking him out of the National Championship hunt.
Well wishes can be sent to Peter through the contact form on his website. Peter will be attending the MotoGP race at Laguna Seca later this month. He will be the kid with a big smile and cast on his right arm.
