BSB champion Tarran Mackenzie suffers suspected broken ankle in testing crash

Despite winning the 2021 BSB championship, the winter has been far from simple for Tarran Mackenzie. 

Ealier this year, in January, Mackenzie broke his right ankle, meaning his 2022 season preparation was compromised from the beginning of the year. Now, in the closing stages of the first day of the final official BSB preseason test in Silverstone, Mackenzie is suspected to have fractured his left ankle. 

A video of the crash can be seen in the below tweet from the official BSB account.

Mackenzie crashed on the exit of the super-fast Woodcote corner towards the end of the final BSB session of Tuesday’s (6 April 2022) preseason test, and has been transferred to hospital for further checks after initial checks were inconclusive, but suggested a fracture to the left ankle is possible. 

The suspected injury brings into doubt the participation of Mackenzie at next week’s (15-17 April 2022) season-opening BSB race at Silverstone.

If Mackenzie were to miss the season opener, it would not be the end of the world, of course. The Showdown format of the BSB championship means that missing a race or two can be recovered, but as yet it is unclear how severe the fracture is, how complex it is, and therefore how long it will take Mackenzie to recover. 

Either way, it is certainly not the way Mackenzie will have wished to kick off his BSB title defence, nor how he will have wished to prepare his WorldSBK debut, which was scheduled for the Dutch round of the World Championship on 22-24 April, a week after the BSB opener.

Lead image courtesy of the British Superbike Championship.