Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Michael Hannas

Thieves stole a trailer and crashed racebike belonging to a racer who was airlifted with head injuries following a crash at Willow Springs International Raceway Sunday in Rosamond, California.

Racer Craig Raines, WSMC #68, suffered a closed head injury and was helicoptered to the hospital following a multi-bike turn-nine pile-up in the combined 750cc Superbike/Open Modified Production race late in the day during the opening WSMC weekend of 2003.

Raines’ father loaded up his son’s crashed GSX-R750 into his trailer and took it to his own house Sunday evening, where it was stolen sometime Monday night.

Raines is heavily sedated because of his injuries but is responsive; according to WSMC Operations Manager Kenny Kopecky, the family expects Raines will make a full recovery. Raines also suffered a broken collarbone and collapsed lung in the incident.

Kopecky noted that Raines’ father was rather upset but doesn’t think that the theft was related to the accident. The VIN # of the stolen bike was unavailable to Roadracingworld.com at post time, but Raines’ late-model Suzuki GSX-R750 is silver with blue trim and sported #68, and has obviously been crashed.