American teen hero Jason DiSalvo finished 12th in his latest race in Europe, a 250cc round in Hungary last weekend, despite running over a rider who crashed in front of him early-on. DiSalvo, 17, had no chance to avoid hitting the other rider, who crashed immediately in front of him, and was understandably shaken by the incident. But the other rider escaped serious injury and DiSalvo soldiered on despite the trauma to finish in a points-paying position on his Honda RS250.

A tardy press release–which doesn’t include the details of the first-lap incident–issued by DiSalvo’s team follows:

“After recording his first European win of the season last week, Cruise America Grand Prix Racing Team rider Jason DiSalvo continued his good form with a battling 12th place despite problems in the European Championship race at the Hungaroring in Hungary on Sunday.

“Despite it being his first visit to the circuit aboard the RS250 Honda, the 17-year-old from Batavia, New York, qualified in 13th place on the grid and as normal, got his trademark flying start to run in ninth place during the opening lap.

“But just as DiSalvo was lining up his attack to climb the leaderboard further, a fellow rider crashed in front of him which meant he had to take evasive action which dropped him back down to 14th place.

“Despite the setback, Jason rode a calculated race to climb back up to 12th place at the checkered flag to score four important championship points.

“‘The same thing happened to me in Spain but this time I could not avoid running into him. It shook me up and knocked me out of my rhythm but at least the guy was okay. I’m happy to get a result but at the same time I’m disappointed as I know I could have done better’ said Jason afterwards.

“The team is now back in the United States but will soon be jetting back out to Croatia for the next round of the European Championship at the Rijeka circuit on June 10th.”