Panera Bread Ducati rider Kyle Wyman, who is recovering from an elbow injury that he suffered six weeks ago at Road America during round three of the 2021 HONOS Superbike Championship, had to make the decision to withdraw from racing in this weekend’s MotoAmerica Superbikes at Minnesota event at Brainerd International Raceway.
Wyman was unable to race his Superbike at the previous round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca due to the injury, and Toni Elias served as the fill-in rider on the team. Wyman did, however, compete in the King Of The Baggers race at Laguna Seca, which he won and, in the process, clinched the three-round championship.
“Yesterday was six weeks out of surgery, to the day,” Wyman said. “Of course, I raced the Bagger at Laguna. It was tough, but manageable. Coming in here, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. But, I came out here hoping to be in a good position. I’ve been really struggling getting strength back. The bone is just fine, but I haven’t been able to do a lot of conditioning because of the pain and the lack of range of motion. I showed up here thinking ‘I’ll figure it out. I’ll manage it.’
“I think I did about 40 laps yesterday during the test. During the second session yesterday, I had a big incident going into Turn 10. I came way up out of the seat and saved a highside. So, trying to keep the bike on the track, I braked harder than I had all day. And, when I was holding my weight off the bars, I felt a huge snap in my elbow right where the plate is. Turns out that the skin and tissue that was adhered to the plate broke free. Now, it’s loose, but I’ve had a lot of inflammation. All the muscles that I’m having to use to compensate in order to hold up the weight under braking is making it to where, two, three laps in, I can’t physically put the bike where I want it. In a race situation, it’s just not going to work. So, to not jeopardize Pittsburgh in two weeks or even Jersey and Barber, I think it’s best that I withdraw.”
So, Wyman will sit out the rest of the weekend, regroup, keep rehabbing, and look forward to round seven at Pitt Race on August 13-15.
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