I began covering the AMA Grand National Championship last year for Cycle News. One of the most intriguing riders I had a chance to meet was Nick Cummings. Cummings raced a limited schedule last year due to budget constraints, plus the fact he had a still unhealed broken back.

In spite of lack of consistent racing, and his obvious back problems (he had to be lifted off his bike after a few races) Cummings scored on the podium at about half the races he attended last season – he’s that naturally talented.

I was happy this year when I found out Nick got picked up by Chris Carr Racing. Finally he would have a stable mentor in savvy veteran Carr and have a team that would allow him to go to all the races. Further Nick was learning the ropes in road racing as part of the Pair-A-Nines Kawasaki Moto-GT squad.

At Springfield the Carr Racing/Cummings pairing paid immediate dividends. Cummings was the fastest rider in timed qualifying and easily won his heat race. The track grooved up quite a bit by race time and Nick ended up finishing fifth (fourth after winner Bryan Smith was DQd for illegal fuel). It was Nick’s best finish on the famous Springfield Mile. His season was off to a great start. It looked like Nick had turned the corner.

Sunday I heard the news that on Saturday Nick was involved in a bad crash in a regional dirt track race in Dayton, Ohio. He received bad injuries that will likely be season ending. That was one of the toughest pieces of news I’ve heard in a long time. As a journalist you try to remain objective and not root for any one racer, but I know deep down I was hoping to see Nick do well this season. I was hoping for a little good luck to finally come his way.

Sometimes racing is a cruel game.