Newly crowned Flat Track Canada Champ Steve Beattie is recovering from serious injuries suffered at the final round of the Flat Track Canada National Championships at Ohsweken Speedway, west of Hamilton, ON, on the evening of September 24.
Petrolia, ON-based Beattie is in hospital in Hamilton, and is expected to remain there for the next few days. His injuries include a broken collar bone, broken left hand and two broken vertebrae in his neck. Beattie suffered no loss of range of mobility from the crash, and is said to be in a positive frame of mind while recovering. This is the fourth time that Beattie has suffered serious neck injuries in a motorcycle racing-related incident.
Beattie runs the TwentySix Suspension firm, and also serves as a trainer at a Gym. He has previously earned the National Flat Track Overall Championship title in 1992, 1995 and 1997. Prior to the incident at Ohsweken, the unretired Beattie was in the midst of a very successful summer of racing. Earlier in the Ohsweken program, Beattie had won the “Dash for Cash” race on his Honda “framer.”
Beattie’s crash with his Kurt Beigger Racing Honda single occurred just after the start of the final Expert Open class race of the year, in the final National of the season. Exiting the second turn, a few positions into the still tightly-bunched pack, Beattie lost control and fell along the edge of the track’s outside retaining wall, and was struck by two other racers.
The race was immediately stopped and the Safety Crew went to work on Beattie, stabilizing him before he was transferred to Hospital by Ambulance, late Saturday night.
The race start was successful on the second attempt, and Tyler Seguin battled for the lead with 2015 FTC Series Champ Doug Lawrence. With Beattie out of action, Lawrence had a shot at retaining his red number one plate if he earned the victory. But Seguin eventually pulled clear to win by three seconds, Lawrence was second in the final 2016 race, and Beattie hung on to the FTC National Title.
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