SCOTT REDDING REVEALS DETAILS OF 2019 CRASH THAT LEFT HIM BLEEDING AND HIDING INJURIES

Scott Redding has revisited one of the most harrowing episodes of his racing career: the crash in early 2019 that nearly cost him everything, and which he had to keep secret at the time.

After leaving MotoGP following a difficult Aprilia spell, Redding signed with the Paul Bird team—now led by the late Bird’s setup—aiming to begin his first Superbike season. But just days after training began in Spain, disaster struck. While riding a minibike, the carburettor throttle stuck open. Redding grabbed the brakes, the front end went away, and he slid through a gap in the tyre wall. Behind it was a concrete service shaft.

In a detailed account shared on the podcast “Scruff Bags by HMY,” Redding described the injuries and the immediate aftermath. “That cut my thigh and my arm,” he said. “I was lying on the track and bleeding very heavily.” He also recalled how long it took for proper medical help to arrive. “There was no ambulance there,” he said, explaining that his training-mate Jake Dixon and mechanic Sam Neave had to improvise—tying off his leg with rope.

Redding said he witnessed the fear on their faces. “I saw the pure fear in their faces,” he told listeners. “After twenty minutes I told them I couldn’t make it. Sam was just shouting that I shouldn’t close my eyes.”

Only around half an hour later did an ambulance finally reach the scene. In Valencia, Redding then spent days in hospital corridors because no room was available. The open fracture had been contaminated by dirt and stones, which doctors struggled to remove. “The doctors couldn’t get the contamination out,” Redding explained. Eventually, Tito Rabat—his former team-mate—helped arrange a private transfer: “a van with a bed in the back.” Redding was moved without pain relief, and only after the journey did the fracture receive proper treatment.

The injury also came with a strict confidentiality demand. Bird contacted Redding after learning about the crash through Neave. According to Redding’s retelling, Bird’s response was blunt: “You’re no use to me anymore.” Redding asked for one chance—permission to attempt the first test at Monteblanco. Bird agreed, but only on the condition that nobody was allowed to know about the injury.

Redding said he complied and effectively had to hide the severity of what had happened. “I didn’t argue with him,” he said. “I just had to pretend it wasn’t an option.”

The rehabilitation period was intense and carefully managed. Redding described daily work that included learning to move again—practising stair steps in the mornings, balancing in the sea, and undergoing physiotherapy where he said he cried every day. At night, he worked on an ergometer, trying to achieve a single full crank revolution. “They told me that as soon as I could move it, they would break it open,” he said, adding that this was the key moment for him.

After about three weeks, he was back on a motocross bike, and soon after on a supermoto. But he was not allowed to show he was limping. “I wasn’t allowed to show that I was limping. That was the whole secret,” Redding said.

When he finally returned to action at Monteblanco, the results were immediate. He set a lap record and was the fastest on both days. By the end of the season, Redding became the first British rookie to win the Superbike championship.

Looking back, Redding suggested the achievement was inseparable from the circumstances. “The difference is: I don’t know if I could do it today,” he said. “Back then I simply had no other choice.”