Alexander Codey struck gold in round three of the Australian Superbike Championships (ASBK) recently, but not in the way he expected.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Bowral racer crashed his Yamaha R3 in the Supersport 300 class at The Queensland Raceway in May and he described the experience as "mental".
"I was flat out doing at least 175km/h on the main straight when the front tyre let go just as I was turning into the first turn of the race track," Codey said.
"The bike did about four somersaults into the gravel trap and so did I.
![Bowral racer Alexander Codey with his team manager Jeff Brown. Pictures supplied. Bowral racer Alexander Codey with his team manager Jeff Brown. Pictures supplied.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/vQaZ3anPUuND9nFzbQxA35/a726d94b-b4b6-4b15-9d9a-03bc4f662484.jpg/r0_0_1125_1998_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"After what seemed like eternity, I slid to a halt and to my complete surprise, got to my feet with just a few scrapes and bruises."
However, the bike was a complete mess and his pit crew attempted to rebuild it to no avail.
"There was gravel everywhere and when we took off the bodywork, there was about a shoe box full of pebbles in the race fairings," team manager Jeff Brown said.
"When we eventually restarted the motor, about a handful of small stones shot out of the exhaust pipe".
![The Yamaha R3 was a complete mess after the crash. The Yamaha R3 was a complete mess after the crash.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/vQaZ3anPUuND9nFzbQxA35/9eb9f5f3-9441-487f-accc-62aa8bcd7e9e.jpg/r0_0_1125_1998_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
That meant it was the end of the Cody Racing Team's racing for that weekend, but there was a silver lining, or in Codey's case, a gold lining.
"There was this one large pebble which was much heavier than normal and had gold coloured flecks all over it," Brown said.
"I ran my metal detector over it and it registered a very loud signal, so there was definitely a fair bit of gold in that rock."
![There was a bit of gold in this rock. There was a bit of gold in this rock.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/vQaZ3anPUuND9nFzbQxA35/ffe00700-0bdc-4325-8f52-2611b2381140.jpg/r0_26_549_351_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Even though Codey's injuries weren't serious, his bike will be out of action for at least a more few weeks.
In the meantime, Brown said his team could do with a few more sponsors and joked that they might now have a few extra dollars to fund their racing with.