Image: Octopi Media.

An existing thumb injury has been identified as a cause of RJ Hampshire’s curious front-end washes, speaking out on the strength-sapping issue after Washougal.

Hampshire has been hindered by a series of mistakes in recent rounds, but managed to avoid trouble on his way to second overall in 250MX on the weekend.

“I had a strength problem with my right hand there for a bit, from RedBud,” Hampshire commented. “I felt good today and had better strength, so as this break comes, we’ll be able to recover quite a bit and be better at Unadilla.

“Honestly, I’m getting so much heat about crashing and stuff, but realistically I had a crash in practice at RedBud and I hurt my thumb. I didn’t want to say anything after RedBud because I went out and won, so if I were to say ‘yeah, I hurt my thumb in practice’, it’s kinda, ‘yeah, this guy’s pretty much talking BS’.

“I’ve just been struggling with strength, honestly, and that’s a lot to do with those front-end crashes… the front-wheel washing out. If you look at all of my crashes the last three weekends, that’s literally all they’ve been.

“There is a reason behind it, today was a lot better on the slipperiest track and we didn’t wash the front once. Late in these motos my strength gets weaker and weaker, so I’m just kind of managing that and we did that today.”

The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider has been working on taming his speed as he regains fitness, going 2-3 at round seven despite stalling in the second moto.

“I felt like I had the speed to battle for the win, but once I stalled it there in that second moto it really deflated me,” he added on Saturday afternoon. “That’s something I’m working on, just trying to settle down a bit.”