Pay enough attention to racing, and it won't take you long at all to discover that racers are usually cut from a different cloth than most people. Never mind any discussion of talent; the sheer amount of discipline it takes to get to the highest levels of a given motorsport is simply on another level.
So it's one thing to be able to say you're a former MotoGP racer, and it's completely another to also be able to say that you successfully went on to run in the Dakar Rally and even manage to win a stage on your first event.
By now, you may already have figured out that we're talking about Danilo Petrucci, who remains to this day the only racer to have ever accomplished that particular feat. Quite literally, he's in a class by himself.
Forging new paths can sometimes end in painful consequences, though. On April 11, 2024, Petrucci says that he was out doing some motocross training at a track in Cingoli, Italy when he suffered a bad crash.
According to his account, he lost control of his bike just prior to a big jump, and it ended up accelerating instead of braking as he'd wanted to do. As a result, he jumped high, and then had a big crash when he arrived on the ground.
Petrux called it one of the scariest falls of his life. He ended up breaking some teeth, as well as his jaw in two places, his clavicle, and his shoulder along with various other cuts and bruises.
He's currently recovering in the hospital but was able to get someone to take his photo so he could update his Instagram with the news. Since his post went up, numerous well wishes from all over the motorsport and motorcycle world have been flooding in, hoping for Petrux's speedy recovery.
We at RideApart join the throng of voices hoping that he gets better soon, and are glad he's getting the care he needs.
