Sixteen year old Bay motorcycle sensation Ruche’ Moodley must surely be wondering when his luck will change as he completed a bittersweet opening round of the Red Bull Rookie Cup Championship at the Circuito de Jerez in Spain where he got hit from behind in race one while in second place with under two laps of the race to go. “Having started on the third row of the grid I consistently made my way up through the field getting to second place and was fighting for the win, but unfortunately another rider rode into me from behind causing us to both crash with less than two laps to go.” said a somewhat dejected Moodley.

Then in race two Moodley was issued with two long-lap penalties for an apparent jump-start, in one of the strangest decisions yet seen. After watching the replay of the start numerous times, it seems clear that there was no apparent transgression.

From the third row of the grid Moodley had a brilliant start and was once again mixing it up with the front runners before dropping to eleventh after serving his two penalty laps. A masterful determined performance from him saw him climb back to eighth place across the line – “After serving my  double long-lap penalty I finished in 8^th place and was so happy to see the chequered flag for the first time after 4 races!” added Moodley.

Moodley’s hectic schedule continues this coming weekend as the second round of the FIM Moto3 Junior World Championship now moves to the challenging Portuguese Circuito do Estoril for the European Talent Cup where he will once again be representing the Finetwork MIR Team. The action can be enjoyed by watching the livestream of the event on FIM JuniorGP Facebook page from 10h45 on Sunday.