Shropshire Star

Booth-Amos crashes out in Italy while Rutter lines up with quality field at Goodwood

Tom Booth-Amos was left cursing yet more bad luck after suffering a broken ankle as MotoGP returned to action.

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The Newport star had shown some real potential at Misano, in Italy, over the weekend only to see his race brought to a premature end once more.

The 23-year-old, making his debut in the Moto3 class this year, with the French-based CIP-Green Power team, has struggled for consistency throughout 2019 while also showing glimpses of his true potential.

Ideal conditions greeted the riders for round 13 with Booth-Amos, who made steady progress throughout the three days, qualifying in 29th.

However, he had made his up to 19th on the third lap before crashing out and breaking his ankle.

He now faces additional medical exams this week to see if he will be fit enough for round 14 in Aragon, Spain, this weekend.

Booth-Amos (69) had been making steady progress before crashing and breaking his ankle

Booth-Amos said: “The weekend obviously didn’t end as we had hoped. I broke a bone in my ankle and on Tuesday I will head to Barcelona to see Dr Mir.

"I hope an intervention will not be necessary and I will be able to race as early as this weekend in Aragon.

"Overall, the pace of the weekend was quite good. It’s a shame it ended like that but we’ll come back stronger.”

Meanwhile, Bridgnorth's Michael Rutter turned back the clock to compete at the Goodwood Revival over the weekend – with a line-up boasting current and former British Superbike stars, and even ex-MotoGP rider in the form of Spanish ace Dani Pedrosa.

After qualifying in sixth with team-mate Michael Russell, just 1.3 seconds off pole – racing against the likes of James Hillier, Steve Parrish, John McGuinness and Jeremy McWilliams – the pair ended race one in seventh, 32 seconds behind the winners, after 17 laps.

Michael Rutter sat on the Manx Norton ready to race at The Goodwood Revival

Race two was a little closer but despite finishing 14 seconds off the pace they slipped to 11th across the finish line, after completing 14 laps on their Manx Norton.

However, their combined results over the entire 31 laps, across Saturday and Sunday, were enough to see them finish the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy in sixth place.

"I didn't know I was racing until quite close to the actual weekend but I was teamed up with Mike Russell again," said Rutter, who is also team boss of Bathams Racing.

"We had quite a good qualifying session, especially considering how competitive the grid was.

"It was more like a British Superbike meeting with the likes of Peter Hickman, Richard Cooper – who pipped our Bathams Racing rider Taylor Mackenzie to the National Superstock 1000 title – and even former MotoGP star Dani Pedrosa.

"The format means riders have to swap half way through and it was me who went off in the first race.

"Another person holds the clutch in for you and, after running across the track, you're suppose to just take off.

"However, it didn't quite work and the bike stalled, which meant it jumped out of gear and before I knew it I was in 29th place.

"I managed to get back up to 11th before passing it over and then Russell brought it home in sixth, which was a pretty good result."

Russell started the second race and had managed to take the lead but then the control car came out because of a crash and he got stuck behind it, not able to come in until it was safe, which again left the team right at the back.

"By the time it was my turn the control car had come out again, this time because James Hillier crashed, and the race was declared a result, with us in 11th, which left us sixth over all, which wasn't a bad result, really."

Rutter will now turn his attention back to the final two rounds of the National Superstock 1000 series, which heads to Donington Park, October 4-6, before the final round at Brands Hatch, October 18-20.