Kaleb De Keyrel, the 22-year-old who won his debut race in the MotoAmerica Twins Cup class at July 13 WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, was seriously injured in a crash July 27, during this past weekend’s AFM race event at Thunderhill Raceway Park.
Earlier Monday, De Keyrel posted the following to his Facebook page: “Just wanted to give everyone an update on what’s going on and up until this point we weren’t 100% sure on everything. I had an extremely fast crash yesterday in my first race of the day at Thunderhill at the AFM series, when my brakes failed going into turn 1. I didn’t have any choice but to lay the bike or I was going to hit a wall at 160 mph. As soon as I laid it down I start to flip and as a result of the tumbling. I broke my femur and sacrum. They airlifted me in a helicopter due to the hospital being a 50min drive away. I will be going into surgery at noon today to get a rod put in my femur and just ask if you could pray that everything goes well with the surgery. I am extremely lucky with how everything played out and God was definitely looking out for me every step of the way. I am feeling pretty good being the situation and just want to get this surgery out of the way so I can get to recovery. Huge thank you to everyone that has reached out y’all are amazing! Also thank you to my amazing girlfriend for taking care of me here in the hospital and my team for everything this weekend! Thank you too all of my sponsors for having the best equipment to keep me protected.”
Roadracingworld.com attempted to reach De Keyrel, but he did not answer his mobile phone.
De Keyrel was riding a John Anderson Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 at Thunderhill and not the Roaring Toyz/1-833-CJ-Knows Yamaha FZ-07 he used to win the MotoAmerica Twins Cup race at Laguna Seca.
We will post updated information as it becomes available.
UPDATE: Roaring Toyz/1-833-CJ-Knows Team Owner Robert Fisher has relayed a report from De Keyrel’s girlfriend Marissa Lahner stating De Keyrel is out of surgery, the procedure went well, and he should be able to start his recovery and rehabilitation immediately.