Image: Foremost Media.

Preliminary scans have revealed that KTM Racing Team’s Noah Ferguson has escaped injury following an opening moto collision in Wonthaggi, with significant muscle bruising to his left hand cited as the extent of the damage so far.

Round one of the Penrite ProMX Championship proved to be a challenging day for the MX2 class contender, who experienced a lack of comfort from the moment his wheels hit the loamy Wonthaggi surface.

Despite this, his fourth-fastest qualifying time was backed up by a fast start in the opening moto before a tangle with a lapped rider resulted in damage to his left hand, with the talented Queenslander in survival mode for the remainder of the day.

“I was in third or fourth at the time, then around the 15-minute mark of the moto, I came across some lappers who were in a battle and tried to sneak around the outside of them to not interfere,” Ferguson explained when contacted by MotoOnline. “One of them ended up popping out of their rut, went straight instead of turning, and collected me hard – pushed me through the banners and blew my hand off.

“At that point, I knew my hand was pretty toast – I thought I’d broken it, honestly. Kyle [Blunden] and I then went to Racesafe, who wanted me to go get an X-ray in Wonthaggi, but I said ‘Nah, I want to race the next one,’ and we ended up P5 overall.

“I flew home and then got a scan Monday morning that came back all clear, which I was happy about. I was told it was probably really bad muscle bruising, but it’s unclear if there is anything else wrong because it’s so swollen. If [the swelling hasn’t reduced] by Thursday, I’ll go get an ultrasound, see the surgeon, and go from there.”

It was a valiant effort for the MX2 title-challenger, with his 5-6 moto scorecard seeing him 19 points adrift of defending class champion Brodie Connolly (Polyflor Honda Racing) entering round two at Appin on April 13.