Top 20 in Assen despite fractured wrist

Blue skies and ideal weather conditions were reigning the whole weekend to welcome the return of the Moto2 field to the mecca of motorcycle racing in Assen, Netherlands. The ninth round of the 2018 world championship and the Dutch/ Japanese NTS RW Racing squad’s first home round did not have an ideal start for Steven Odendaal, however, who fractured his left scaphoid in a motocross accident only a few days before the start of the weekend. Despite suffering from pain, he was declared fit to ride on Thursday afternoon and was off to a positive start on Friday, finishing 1,4 seconds off the front in the combined classification.

“We have had a couple of eventful weeks! During the Aragon test, my team decided to swap technicians between my team mate Joe and myself, we also got a new chassis to try and had to adjust to the new environment very quickly. The test was very positive and I felt very confident going to Assen. Unfortunately I had a training accident the day before leaving Barcelona and only found out at the circuit mobile clinic that my left wrist was fractured. I wasn’t prepared to let my team down and we worked really hard to get me comfortable as much as possible. Unfortunately the qualifying session was interrupted by a red flag only 4 minutes before the chequered flag and did not manage to improve at the end. Starting from 26th on the grid and with strong pain killers, we knew the race was going to be difficult. However, we still managed to finish the race, collect important information and Joe and I had a nice battle. I am going to see a wrist specialist this week and try to prepare for Sachsenring as much as I can. It is one of the most physically demanding circuits but we will be there, rain or shine, pushing to the limit as always. I would like to say thanks to my whole team for their support and hard work, also our sponsors and all the Dutch fans who came to support their local team this weekend. It turned out Jarno (Janssen) is not only a great team manager, but also a great event planner!”