Ruche Moodley Plays the Long Game in Catalunya

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A tough start to the weekend
Slipstream city
Battling until the flag

The Moto3 world championship has entered the last third of the 2025 season, with the 15^th round of the season taking place at Circuit de Catalunya for the Catalan GP. It’s been nothing short of a rollercoaster year for rookie racer Ruche Moodley. The South African began the season with one clear goal: to learn the ropes of the world championship series.

“We knew, coming into Moto3 that the level of riding is extremely high. I raced against many of the riders in the field in feeder series leading up to Moto3. Only the best make it this far so the competition is really tough,” said the teenager.

Moodley opened up his maiden season with a number of point-scoring finishes, which bode well for the rest of the season. But a series of crashes, an ever-present danger in motorcycle racing, and subsequent injuries left him on the backfoot as he faced down time and a recovery period.

Ruche returned to racing at the Austrian GP where he felt strong on the bike, injury woes now seemingly behind him as he finished just shy of the point-scoring positions. As a result, he went into the Catalan GP a bit more upbeat.

“I was looking forward to the race in Catalunya. We are based in Spain during the race season so it feels a bit like a ‘home’ race. The track is also one of the classic MotoGP venues, always providing great racing,” expressed Moodley.

However, the opening sessions of the weekend didn’t quite go according to plan. “We struggled a bit for pace in the early sessions. Catalunya is a really high-speed circuit, so if you aren’t completely confident you can lose time in the fast corners.” As a result, Ruche qualified 19^th for Sunday’s race.

The start at Catalunya is a proper drag race down to turn one with a tricky right-left sequence to tackle after the high-speed blast. From his grid position Moodley dropped a few places at the very start of the race.

“I need to work on being more aggressive at the start and on the opening laps. But I knew that the long pit straight here provides plenty of opportunity to pass those ahead, so I didn’t worry too much about the opening lap. The pace ahead was really hot and the front guys started to break away really early.”

Moodley found himself in the second pack of riders placed from 17^th to about 22^nd. Riders chopped and changed on every lap, sometimes more than a single place at a time. Ruche tucked in behind his rivals, picking them off one by one. The pack was covered by as little as half a second for many laps.

“It was a battle that required lots of concentration as we were running flat out in top gear on the pit straight millimetres away from each other, nose-to-tail and sometimes side-by-side, rubbing elbows as we passed each other.”

The Gqeberha-born lad held his nerve as he picked off his competitors lap after lap. He entered the final lap in hot pursuit of former Moto3 stalwart Dennis Foggia. Moodley got the better of his more experienced rival at the line to finish 18^th.

“It was another tough weekend in the saddle, but we got to the chequered flag, which is the first priority on any race weekend. A positive to take from the race is that I learnt to adapt my riding style to manage tyre wear and performance as the race progressed,” concluded Moodley.