The world’s hottest young motorcycle talents returned to action this past weekend as the Moto3 series resumed action after the Euro summer break. Round 13 of the 2025 season took place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Among the would-be champions is riding talent Ruche Moodley.
The Gqeberha-born lad is the sole South African flying our flag in the world championship series. Moodley had a tough end to the first half of his rookie campaign, suffering a few crashes and resultant injuries that forced him to sit out a few races leading up to the break.
“It wasn’t a great way to go into the summer break, with the incidents and missing the last two races. I was looking forward to returning home. It was great to catch up with family and to recharge after the hectic season,” said Moodley ahead of the race weekend. “But I could not wait to get back on my race bike.”
Moodley’s return came after almost two months away from competition, but it didn’t seem that way. The youngster immediately started to set times that were competitive from the first session of the weekend. The break in SA, it seemed, had worked a treat.
“It felt great to be back on the BOE Motorsports KTM. I know the Red Bull Ring circuit from having raced here in other categories, so I knew I’d be on the pace.”
Moodley set quick times through the early sessions, despite a small ‘off’ on Friday morning. His early pace was close to giving him a direct pass into the Q2 qualifying session, missing out by just 9/1000ths of a second. He would eventually qualify in 19th place for the start of Sunday’s main event.
The race itself was a typical Spielberg thriller. Close-fought battles raged across the field. Moodley lost a few places at the traditional chaotic start. He had to take avoiding action as his own teammate crashed ahead of him, dropping him down to 22nd. This cost Ruche valuable time to the guys ahead.
The long straights at Red Bull Ring make slipstreaming particularly important. Unfortunately, the field strung out quite early in the race. Moodley found himself in a group that was a few seconds off the quick, leading pack.
It took the teen just two laps to regain the lost ground from the chaotic start. From there he chipped away to 18th, then 17th. During this time, he was having a ding-dong battle with other rookies, trading places as the laps progressed. By the latter part of the race, he’d run as high as 16th.
“Once I caught Casey (O’gorman and) Nicola (Carraro) we were having a proper battle, passing each other on every lap. The battle was so much fun and it went right until the last lap.”
Moodley was eventually classified 17th, narrowly missing out on scoring a point, when the chequered flag fell. It was an excellent return to action after the summer break and his recovery period.
“I was a little nervous, but excited to return to action. I finished higher than I started, which is always a plus. Our strategy for my rookie year has always been to finish every race, learning as we go. And that is exactly what we did today.
“I felt good on the bike at the end of the race. I didn’t feel like my grip was getting worse, which means my injuries are fully healed. Now I am looking forward to visiting other tracks I have raced at before and building towards a strong finish to the season,” concluded Moodley
Published by: Double Apex on behalf of Ruche Moodley
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