Crash injury sidelines Austin Forkner for the remainder of 2023 Supercross season

By Jan 10, 2023, 10:30 PM EST
Forkner 2023 Supercross injury
Feld Motor Sports/MX Sports Pro Racing/Align Media
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Austin Forkner is out for the remainder of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season after suffering an injury in a crash at Angel Stadium in the first round of the 2023 SuperMotocross World Championship.

Forkner was involved in the accident at the start of the race immediately after the gate dropped. He collided with two other riders as the line narrowed to take the first turn.

Forkner was pitched from his bike and landed hard, suffering an injury to his right knee: a full thickness ACL tear, lateral meniscus tear and a fracture to the top of his tibia and fibula, among other knee-related injuries.

Forkner also broke a bone in his hand during the crash.

After evaluation, Forkner and the Monster Energy / Pro Circuit Kawasaki team decided to end his 2023 title bid to allow time to heal.

On Saturday night, Forkner was one of three factory riders, along with Malcolm Stewart on a Husqvarna and Pierce Brown on a GasGas, who crashed heavily during the event, which was plagued by deep ruts caused by wet conditions throughout the week.

“Hey guys, I thought I’d give you an update,” Forkner said on his Instagram page. “I didn’t feel like typing anything, so I figured I’d just make a video. First off, I want to say thank you to everybody who has reached out, sent prayers and everything.

“I haven’t been responding to very many people, even like friends and family. I just don’t really know what to say. I’m still in shock and still so upset. It’s still so fresh and I just got news yesterday of what the actual damage is. It’s just one of those things.

“I felt great going into this year and was ready to challenge for the championship,” Forkner said in a press release. “I think my qualifying and heat race speed proved that the preparation from the whole team was on par to win races. Unfortunately, I was involved in a racing incident during the start of the Main Event and injured my knee. This is definitely a frustrating situation, but I’m extremely motivated to focus on my recovery and I will get back to work with the team.”

Forkner has been plagued with injury throughout his pro career. He missed most of the 2022 Supercross season due to a hard crash at Arlington as he raced Jett Lawrence for the lead. In that incident, he reinjured a broken clavicle from an earlier accident.

In 2019, an accident at East Rutherford, New Jersey put an end to that season also.

When he returned to action after the 2022 Arlington crash, he told NBC Sports that “injury isn’t the hardest part of an accident.”

“As we’ve seen from Austin throughout his career, he has the speed and mindset to compete at the highest level,” said Monster Energy / Pro Circuit Team Owner, Mitch Payton. “Austin came into the season with the ultimate goal of winning a championship and we feel he had done the right work to make that a reality. This injury will delay that goal until Austin is healed up and ready to return to competition, but he has our continued support through this time and we look forward to going racing with him in the future.”

When healthy, Forkner finished fourth in the 2018 250 East division, was third in 2019 in that same division and third again in 2020 in the 250 West division.

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With throaty roar, NASCAR Next Gen Camaro is taking Le Mans by storm on global stage

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.

“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

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France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.

Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.

The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.

“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”

The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.

The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.

“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”

This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.

Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.

“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”

The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.

“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.

“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”

The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.

“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”

For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.

“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”

Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.

“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”

The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.

“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”